Friday: Diwali Rock Show at Atlas Brew Works

Diwali is approaching next week and events celebrating the Hindu Festival of Lights are popping up across the city. One unmissable event is the third annual Diwali Rock Show at Atlas Brew Works, featuring local bands led by Indian American artists including Laal Taal (a member of Bottled Up), NAYAN, Prabir Trio, and Sravani. The showcase began three years ago as a project of Richmond-based musician Prabir Mehta, supported by D.C.’s Nayan Bhula (of NAYAN). In the years since its inception, the showcase has grown into a festival featuring far more than music, now highlighting Indian art, food trucks, and clothing. It’s part of a larger celebration of Diwali, the joyous festival marking the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. The showcase, and holiday more broadly, is an opportunity for people to come together and celebrate the good in their lives. The showcase starts at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Atlas Brew Works Ivy City, 2052 West Virginia Ave. NE. atlasbrewworks.com. $12. —Serena Zets 

Friday: Loboko at Hill Center

New York’s Loboko play Congolese dance music, a style that is best known for its high-pitched, mesmerizing guitar lines, tuneful vocals, and a funky bass and drums bottom. The band was founded in 2019 by Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo-born singer and guitarist Yohni Djungu Sungu (who’s toured with Congolese acts Soukous Stars and Fally Ipupa) and drummer Morgan Greenstreet (also an acclaimed DJ and podcast producer), but the two met five years earlier when they played backup for another New York-based Congolese musician. Today, in Loboko, they’re joined by guitarist Nikhil P. Yerawadekar, whose resume includes stints playing Ethiopian and Nigerian music, and a rotating cast of bass players. Their style of Congolese dance music is also known as rumba and the genre’s tempos can sometimes vary. In 2023, Loboko released their first single, “Kanyunyi,” which features speedy guitar bursts, but draws more from the traditional mid-tempo Congolese Mutuashi rhythm. While that song has a bit of a 1970s retro flavor, the band’s founders say their live style is more impacted by the ’90s output of uptempo Congo bands like Wenga Musica and current groups that have also drawn from that era. B-side track “Ekenge” better captures that approach as it uses the fast Congolese music composition style known as seben where the dual guitars take the lead. The guitarists aren’t doing flashy rock-like solos, they’re combining on shimmering notes designed to keep people gyrating on the dance floor. The bandmates tell City Paper they have more originals and plan to self-produce an album. Expect to move your body to those songs at the show. Loboko play at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. hillcenterdc.org. $20. —Steve Kiviat

Friday and Saturday: Ben Folds With the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center

Ben Folds will join the National Symphony Orchestra in the Concert Hall this week for an unforgettable experience. This isn’t just your typical concert; it’s a special live recording of Folds’ new orchestral album with NSO. If you are a fan, Folds will showcase hits and new music. For newer ears, Folds has made significant contributions to music and returns to the Kennedy Center recognized as an indie icon. His repertoire includes pop rock hits from his time as the frontperson and pianist of the alt rock band Ben Folds Five and several solo albums, but he also boasts noteworthy collaborations as a musician and songwriter. Folds’ 2015 album, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, reached No. 1 on the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts. His most recent album, What Matters Most, which he’ll perform with NSO this weekend, was released in 2023 and features a more pop rock sound with a spotlight on piano. This concert marks a special homecoming, as Folds serves as the first NSO Artistic Advisor. In this role, Folds curated a concert series pairing NSO with numerous popular artists including Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, and Julian Baker. Ben Folds: Recorded Live with NSO starts at 8 p.m. on Oct. 25 and 26 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. kennedy-center.org. $29–$79. —Anupma Sahay

Saturday: Spoons Toons, and Booze at Arlington Drafthouse

It might be inappropriate for adults to trick-or-treat without a kid, but some grown-ups still want to dress up for Halloween. For those DMVers, here’s an opportunity to put on a costume—no children or trick-or-treating required. The Spoons Toons and Booze noontime cereal-based brunch features a Halloween costume contest, free all-you-can-eat sugary cereals (Halloween-themed brands included, obviously), specialty cocktails featuring aforementioned sugary cereals, and cartoons. Lots of cartoons. The audience will choose from 150 different Saturday morning cartoons, spanning the decades from the 1940s to early 2000s, to enjoy on the big screen. Pop culture and cereal experts Michael Austin and Nell Casey lend commentary between nostalgic cartoons about witches, monsters, ghosts, and other seasonally appropriate drawn images. There’s nothing too spooky about this event—unless you’re a diabetic—but if you’re not careful, you may die from Count Chocula. Spoons Toons and Booze starts at noon on Oct. 26 at Arlington Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. arlingtondrafthouse.com  $15. —Brandon Wetherbee

Tuesday: Halloween Cookie Class at Lost Boy Cider

Cookies and beer are on the menu at Lost Boy Cider this season. Halloween isn’t just about trick-or-treating and bar crawls; it’s the perfect setting for a fun, spooky activity with a sweet twist. At this delicious experience you can sip on award-winning cider—or nonalcoholic options—while partaking in a spooktacular Halloween Cookie Class hosted by Sugarcoated Bakery. These cookie experts will lead a creepy decorating tutorial on baking sweets shaped like pumpkins, ghosts, and more. Participants will trade in Halloween tricks for decorating tips, including piping bag techniques, and using “wet-on-wet” style for detailed designs, icing options, decorating tools, how to add dimension to cookies, and all-important guidance on fixing decorating mishaps. After the 90-minute class, participants will leave with a bag of festive cookies, an instruction manual for future baked goods, and recipes for royal icing and sugar cookies. The Halloween Cookie Class starts at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 29 at Lost Boy Cider, 317 Hooffs Run Dr., Alexandria. lostboycider.com. $65. —Anupma Sahay

Tuesday: Billy Ocean at Warner Theatre

It’s been 40 years since the release of Billy Ocean’s album Suddenly, the double-platinum project that sent the Trinidadian English singer-songwriter’s career up the charts with the assistance of hit singles including the title track, “Caribbean Queen (No More Love On the Run),” and “Loverboy.” In celebration of the album’s anniversary, Ocean is on tour with a show scheduled for Oct. 29 at Warner Theatre. What’s surprising is that Suddenly was Ocean’s fifth album—that luxury of artist development is almost unheard-of these days. “The whole record industry has changed drastically,” Ocean tells City Paper. “Record companies then, they gave you the opportunity to grow. Now it’s very much a case of a short-lived thing. They don’t give you the encouragement. They don’t give you the finance anymore to allow you to grow.” One of the key ingredients to the success of Suddenly was the addition of Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who served as executive producer and co-wrote “Loverboy” with Ocean and producer Keith Diamond. Prior to collaborating with Ocean, Lange was primarily known for his work with AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Foreigner. “Mutt Lange had his own studio in his house,” Ocean recalls. “Mutt is an amazing producer in the sense that he hears the record in his head before he actually produces it.” (Lange continued his collaboration with Ocean, co-producing and co-writing songs on Ocean’s next two albums, Love Zone and Tear Down These Walls). After nearly 50 years in the industry, Ocean knows what audiences want to hear. “I do all the hits,” says Ocean. “That’s what they came to see. That’s what they would rather hear than you being self-indulgent and giving new songs.” Billy Ocean plays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 29 at Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW. warnertheatredc.com. $41–$125. —Christina Smart

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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 distinguished Bratty, her musical project, since its inception in 2018. Bratty came on to the scene with Todo Está Cambiando, a self-produced shoegazey EP that made waves in Northern Mexico’s indie scene and kicked off a successful musical career full of noteworthy collaborations (Cuco, Metronomy) and performances (Coachella 2023). Throughout TRES, Juárez openly wrestles with the moderate fame she has accrued over the past six years. “I get depressed when I turn on the radio,” she sings on “Radio,” a pop-rock indictment of the music industry and an admission of self-sabotaging tendencies. Depression is a recurring theme on TRES: It’s seasonal on “Agosto,” it keeps Juárez in bed on “Estos Días,” and it teams up with her anxiety on “¿Que Será De Mi?,” a beautiful duet with Mexican indie-pop artist Ivana. Bratty’s confessional, melancholy lyrics pose a sharp contrast to her danceable indie-rock arrangements, the product of a 20-something who grew up listening to Mexican genres like norteño and corrido, then logged on and discovered artists such as Snail Mail and Best Coast (Juárez named herself Bratty after Best Coast’s “Bratty B”). Listening to TRES, with all its insecurity and self-doubt, you get the sense that Bratty isn’t really the type to sing her own praises. So take it from us: TRES is definitely an album que vale la pena. Tickets to see Bratty bring her spectacular songwriting to Songbyrd this Thursday are worth it, too. Bratty plays at 8 p.m. on Feb. 29 at Songbyrd Music House, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com. $18–$22. —Ella Feldman

Thursday: A Night of Women in Americana at Pearl Street Warehouse

Sometimes magic begins with a hashtag. D.C.-based singer-songwriter Jane O’Neill searched for the hashtag #queeramericana on Instagram, seeking other queer country, folk, and American roots musicians: The first artist she found was Philadelphia-based Brittany Ann Tranbaugh. “Historically, country and folk music has a lot of heterosexual narratives, and it’s cool that we can tell our stories,” O’Neill says. “We can tell love stories and paint these pictures. Besides a few artists, like Brandi Carlile, we don’t hear as many stories, especially the experiences of queer women in these genres.” O’Neill and Tranbaugh “became fast friends on social media,” O’Neill says, and after meeting in person when Tranbaugh played the Pocket last fall, the two artists started planning a show together. The resulting concert at Pearl Street Warehouse brings together O’Neill and Tranbaugh as co-headliners, each with a full band, and Nashville-based Mary Moore opening the show. Moore is a folk-pop dreamer with soaring vocals and beautiful melodies. Tranbaugh won the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song “Kiss You”—she is a powerful storyteller in her evocative, heartfelt songs with a rich, bountiful voice. And O’Neill, a Midwest transplant who lives in Dupont Circle and works full time in marketing and event planning, has really been ramping up her burgeoning musical career during the past year, playing at Songbyrd, Big Bear, and various Sofar Sounds Shows around the District. Earlier this month, O’Neill released her self-titled EP, a confident work devoted to different kinds of love—former flames, toxic exes, long-standing friendships, and self-love—told in intimate, vulnerable lyrics performed in different styles of Americana. “It’s gonna be a really magical night,” O’Neill promises. “It’s Leap Day, there are three women onstage, and there’s a lot of power in that.” Jane O’Neill, Brittany Tranbaugh, and Mary Moore play at 8 p.m. on Feb. 29 at Pearl Street Warehouse, 33 Pearl St. SW. pearlstreetwarehouse.com. $14. —Colleen Kennedy

Opens Saturday: Through the Sunken Lands at the Kennedy Center

Follow Artemis Through the Sunken Lands at the Kennedy Center this spring as she fights to save her town after a consuming flood. Artemis’ story, told in a musical, begins at the library, where she finds herself trapped and separated from her family. The library becomes her sanctuary—and a tool for finding out what’s in store for her town. As Artemis crafts an escape to her Aunt Maggie’s house, she learns of a local committee plotting to take over the town during its demise. Artemis enlists Maggie and a talking heron to resist the committee and take back control. The challenge takes Artemis on a journey of growth and enlightenment. Artemis, a wheelchair user, faces her disabilities and harnesses their power to rebuild after the flood. She finds strength in her character to persevere and save her town, Arcady. Through the Sunken Lands is adapted from Tim J. Lord’s radio play, which was commissioned in 2021 by the Kennedy Center to engage young audiences during the pandemic. Lord is part of the creative team behind the musical. “Disability isn’t a challenge that needs to be overcome—it’s something to celebrate as yet another thing that makes each of us unique and interesting humans,” Lord says in the Kennedy Center’s press release. On March 2, the artists and creative team behind the musical will share stories and answer questions after the performance. On March 9, the musical will be a sensory-free performance. Through the Sunken Lands opens March 2 and runs through March 17 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. kennedy-center.org. $20. —Anupma Sahay

Ends Sunday: Soomin Ham at Multiple Exposures Gallery

In her photography, Soomin Ham returns often to deeply personal imagery. In Recollections, her most recent solo exhibition at Multiple Exposures Gallery, Ham does so again, including repurposing works from a previous exhibit, Sound of Butterfly, in which she photographed her late mother’s possessions using stunningly creative techniques such as encasing the images in ice or leaving them out to be covered by falling snow. Recollections doesn’t have the same intense focus on grief; it’s more about her journey through “fragments and layers that shape a landscape of dreams, losses, and memories.” A major recurring theme in her current show is the contrast between light and dark; “Lights for the Fallen” pairs a washed-out portrayal of tombstones with an inky sky filled with twinkling stars, while the vertical diptych “East” and “West” twins portrayals of upside-down and right-side-up branches. Ham includes five images from her “Windows” series, notably a soft-toned stack of clouds hovering over a thin strip of land and a peaceful, pictorialist depiction of a family of ducks on the surface of a lake. Ham’s most enigmatic image may be “Once Upon a Time,” in which a series of footprint-like impressions recedes into the distance in the sand—or are they actually ascending into the sky? With Ham at her moodiest, it’s hard to be sure. Recollections runs through March 10 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. Daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. multipleexposuresgallery.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Next Thursday: The Mother Hips at the Hamilton

California soul is a little upbeat, a little retro—a wonderful collision of surf and groove. This catchy, feel-good vibe, exploding with depth and texture, is delivered impeccably by the Mother Hips. Their genius is hard to pin into one category or another, but the band’s 30-year career can only be classified as great. Having caught the attention of super producer Rick Rubin, the Mother Hips released a new album last year called When We Disappear. It’s a perfect mix of bluesy rock and psychedelia, think juke joints along the Pacific Coast Highway, cowboy boots in the sand, next to surfboards and seagulls, reminiscent of when the Band moved to Malibu in the 1970s. This successful mixing of genres is why the Mother Hips have such a cult following. Highlights of When We Disappear include the title track, which offers an electric sound that’s also reminiscent of Bob Dylan and the Band’s The Basement Tapes, while “Spirit of ’98” carries the dissociative floating sense of Dark Side of the Moon paired with imagery of the wild west. And “Leaving the Valley” has all the smooth R&B makings to get you feeling a little groovy in your bell-bottoms, which you should wear when the Mother Hips bring their unique collision of psychedelic Americana music to the Capitol on March 7. The Mother Hips play at 9 p.m. on March 7 at the Hamilton Live, 600 14th St. NW. live.thehamiltondc.com. $20–$30. —Simone Goldstone

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 and dance led by percussionists that has its roots in music created by enslaved people. Barez brought that cultural style of drumming to his best-known stint—playing in the band that backed Puerto Rico’s political rap duo Calle 13. Barez, who studied music at the University of Puerto Rico and the Los Angeles College of Music, has also played with Shakira, reggaeton artist Don Omar, and William Cepeda (who pioneered combining bomba percussion and Latin jazz). Barez also has dance chops that he honed with Ballet Folclórico Nacional de Puerto Rico. His winding career journey is displayed in El Laberinto del Coco’s pun-intended Spanish name, which means both the labyrinth of the mind in English, and Coco Barez’s labyrinth. While Barez’s song-arranging approach allows space for occasional guitar and drum solos, the band focus on teamwork efforts where Barez’s hand-slapping on a barrel drum, the trap set drummer’s stickwork, the potent brass, and the call and response vocals work together to propel the galloping, danceable rhythms. At their most exhilarating level, the ensemble strikingly combine bomba, salsa, and hip-hop-inflected pop. El Laberinto del Coco play at 8 p.m. on Feb. 1 at the University of Maryland Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kay Theater, 8270 Alumni Dr., College Park. theclarice.umd.edu. $10–$30. —Steve Kiviat

Friday: Punk Rock Karaoke for DC Abortion Fund at Black Cat

This Friday, aspiring punk singers, abortion advocates, and energized audience members will gather on the iconic checkered floor of the Black Cat for Punk Rock Karaoke. All money raised at the event will go toward funding abortions in the District. DC Abortion Fund, which recently announced its first My Body, My Festival, is following in a long line of abortion activists by raising funds via community-driven, transgressive events. What could be more punk rock than that? If you’re like me and can’t wait until May’s festival to show up and show out for D.C.’s music scene and abortion rights, Punk Rock Karaoke should do the trick. The venue’s recently updated karaoke catalog can be accessed ahead of time, giving you space to perfect that solo to bring the house down. Can’t wait to hear what you come up with. Punk Rock Karaoke starts at 8 p.m. on Feb. 2 at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. blackcatdc.com. $10–$15. —Serena Zets 

Premieres Friday: DC Street Jocks Rocked the House on WHUT-HD TV

In recent years, D.C.-area filmmaker, DJ, and music scholar Beverly Lindsay–Johnson has highlighted the city’s R&B history with a handful of documentaries including Dance Party: The Teenarama Story and Fat Boy: The Billy Stewart Story, not to mention the creation of the Nation’s Capital website. Now Lindsay-Johnson is back with an hourlong documentary called DC Street Jocks Rocked the House, which premieres this weekend on WHUT, Howard University Television’s PBS affiliate. (Friday is 202 Day at WHUT, when the station airs documentaries on D.C. culture from 8 a.m. to midnight.) Lindsay-Johnson tells City Paper via email that she was inspired to make DC Street Jocks when she heard an interview with former club owner and DJ Daniel “Hollywood Breeze” Clayton reference exuberant, self-promoters of the 1970s and 1980s, who, like himself, hosted parties and spun records in basements, parks, and clubs, as street jocks. The film ambitiously tries to not only highlight leading D.C. street jocks such as Sam “the Man” Burns and DJ Fats from the decades Breeze mentioned, but to also tell the stories of Black music in segregated D.C. and Black women in the music industry, as well as charting the evolution of R&B in the 20th century and technological changes in DJ equipment. The film includes interviews with local Black DJs such as Arthur “Maniac” McCloud, Greg Diggs, Don Baker, and Jas Funk, as well as record promoters like Wanda Hayes. Using interviews, song snippets, old photos, and film clips, the documentary shows how the music evolved from slow dance basement soul to bass-filled funk and polished disco that filled clubs. While the film unfortunately doesn’t always explain where the clubs were located or show why certain individuals became so prominent—I had to google the impressive obituary of Leonard “Smitty the Mighty Blazer” Smith—it offers a valuable overview of often-overlooked local history, as well as conveying the sociological importance of the person who chooses the music at events. DC Street Jocks Rocked the House airs on Feb. 2 at 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. on WHUT-HD TV and plays six additional times through Feb. 18. whut.org. —Steve Kiviat

Saturday and Sunday: Sanctuary Road at GMU’s Center for the Arts

He is the most successful abolitionist you have never heard of: William Still, who, as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, helped ferry more than 800 enslaved individuals to freedom in the North and in Canada. Still was also a meticulous record keeper, making his already risky vocation even riskier. But through his interviews with those he helped escape—later turned into a self-published memoir—we know some of the daring stories of those who made it out of bondage. Still’s 1872 book has since been adapted to an opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, both Pulitzer winners in music (Moravec for Tempest Fantasy, Campbell for Silent Night). The choral oratorio, performed by Virginia Opera, recounts history leading up to and through the Civil War through the stories of some of those escapees, including Henry “Box” Brown, who incredibly shipped himself in a crate from Richmond to Philadelphia. Still is played by Damien Geter, Richmond Symphony’s composer-in-residence. As a new American composition, the opera is in English and is largely tonal, reflecting trends of more accessible and historically informed works in modern American opera. Sanctuary Road, performed by Virginia Opera plays Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. at George Mason University Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Dr., Fairfax. vaopera.org. $40–$110. —Mike Paarlberg

Tuesday: Bonnie and Clyde at E Street Cinema

Lead into Valentine’s Day with the iconic romantic drama that reset Hollywood: The trending mob wife aesthetic pays homage to Hollywood mob glamour, reintroduced in the 1960s by Bonnie and Clyde. The film, controversial during its release for glamorizing the lives and crimes of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, later became a sleeper hit and a classic of the New Hollywood era. The film follows the thieving duo Bonnie and Clyde—falling in love at first sight while Clyde steals Bonnie’s car, and their ensuing partnership in crime. The pair’s storied—and murderous—crime spree took them through Texas and all over the country for several years during the Great Depression. As they continued to elude law enforcement, Bonnie and Clyde lived outside the rules. Their crimes shifted from store and funeral home thefts to bank robberies, but the film takes liberties to portray the young gangsters as drunk in love, amusing, and sympathetic criminals targeting the rich. Originally meant to be in black-and-white, the film turned to color and its shadowy, fainted hues give the graphic violence an alluring aura. The couple captured the attention of the nation between 1931 and 1934, a time sometimes termed the “public enemy” era. Their biographic film, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, portrayed gangsters and violence through a new artistic lens, garnering nine Academy Award nominations and two wins for Supporting Actress and Cinematography. Decades later, Bonnie and Clyde holds a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is a renowned bit of cinematic history. Bonnie and Clyde plays at 4 and 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 6 at E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. landmarktheatres.com. $5. —Anupma Sahay

Ongoing: Chaosmosis and Collaborative Ecologies at the National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences exhibit Chaosmosis lives up to its clever name, and more. Chaosmosis offers varied attempts to document and explain the endless mysteries of fluid dynamics. Some of the works are relatively staid, such as a white-toned 3D-printed sculpture that depicts the air patterns made by spoken words; a fabric print showing the wavy surfaces caused by flames; and metallic photographic prints of the fragile process by which a raindrop freezes. But the most engaging pieces harness video or digital simulations. One low-res infrared video of an opera singer’s breath combines the beauty of an aria with the menace of the then-new coronavirus (it was made in 2020). One three-part simulation tracks cross sections and long views of fluid moving through a pipe, while a black-and-white tabletop video shows chemical droplets from a pipette exploding into fantastical shapes, including ones that suggest the sun, fractals, or a human egg. The simplest work may be the most relatable: an utterly realistic video simulation of cumulus clouds unfurling over a watery horizon. In its entirety, the exhibit convincingly argues that nature is united in its chaos. A second exhibit, Collaborative Ecologies, features two series in which artist Julia Pollack collaborated with scientists. In one, Pollack photographed small groups of honeybees in a hive, but her images are undercut by goofy, anthropomorphic captions such as “Just scratching,” “I missed you,” and “WHUT.” Pollack’s second series is smarter, showing petri dishes with two individuals’ microbial fingerprints, along with a third showing the microbes from something both of them touched. The series is a reminder that ours is a microbial world; we humans are just passing through. Chaosmosis runs through Feb. 23, Collaborative Ecologies runs through June 7 at the National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. cpnas.org. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Friday: Mipso at the 9:30 Club

A four-member string-centric band hailing from North Carolina already points to Americana. And for any other band, a debut album that lands itself on Billboard’s Bluegrass Top 10 might have solidified their home in the genre. But for Mipso’s debut release, “Dark Holler Pop just felt like the most exciting way to present those songs at the time,” says frontperson Joseph Terrell. Listeners agreed. The album propelled Mipso into early success. Since 2013, they have put out a new album every two years, each one containing additional streaming hits such as “Louise” and “People Change.” In August, Mipso released their sixth album,  Book of Fools, which is also their boldest break away from the genre that started it all. “I think we’re writing our best songs right now, and it’s completely different,” says Terrell. With all four members penning songs, creating the cohesive 10-track collection took some simmering. “We started out with 50 songs,” Terrell explains, “Fools is maybe not the absolute best of those, but it’s the songs that felt the most together […] We’re four distinct personalities, so it becomes about preserving those identities in this one album.” (For further evidence of Mipso’s ability to converge otherwise divergent ideas, a recent show included covers of Dido, Phish, and Bruce Springsteen.) Pulling from the larger collection of songs, Fools is a selection of the tracks that are “transformed by the others’ presence,” Terrell continues. Mipso’s ability to seamlessly pivot styles in Fools was, in part, due to the band’s approach. “At the beginning, we confused intensity with quality,” Terrell says of the band’s early days. In Fools, Mipso took their time to figure out what they wanted to say through the very process of creating the album. “It was a process of revelation,” says Terrell. Mipso’s Carolina roots come through in Book of Fools, but what is just as clear is their profound desire to follow the creative process wherever it takes them. The band return to the 9:30 Club this Friday, one of the first venues they played outside of North Carolina, and which Terrell calls, “one of the best clubs in the country.” Mipso play at 10 p.m. on Nov. 17 at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930club.com. $25. —Camila Bailey

Friday and Saturday: LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum at the Kennedy Center

Social dance is dance that happens in social contexts, for social purposes. Think of the balls in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: ballrooms and gloves, music and a band. The characters’ dramas unfurled through the dances, partly because the choreography brought people close enough to touch and talk. Participation, not observation, is the point. Social dance happens in every culture, and the elements reflect the people, fashions, and times that the particular dance form was created. LaTasha Barnes is a choreographer, Kennedy Center “Office Hours” resident, and a scholar of Black American social dance through the ages. Her latest work, The Jazz Continuum, is a “stage experience” that guides audiences through the history of social dance in Black communities, such as jazz, Lindy Hop, hip-hop, and house. Each show is tailored to the region where it’s performed, so Barnes’ upcoming experiences will focus on D.C.’s popular social dances, past and present. LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum performs at 8 p.m. on Nov. 17 and 18 at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, 2700 F St. NW. kennedycenter.org. $29. —Mary Scott Manning

Saturday: Punk Rock Flea Market at St. Stephen’s

“Punk” tends to be something of an equivocal term, and even defining it can sometimes prove challenging. Everybody knows the cliches—combat boots, mohawks, middle fingers, and profanity-strewn homemade shirts—but the views, beliefs, and political currents underlying punk are a little more nuanced: grassroots efforts, community-based movements with an antiestablishment edge, and, quite often, a sneaking whiff of satire. These are just four aspects (among many, many others) that might help define “punk”, and this Saturday, the DC Punk Rock Flea Market is looking to hit every mark. On Nov. 18, just days before Thanksgiving, the Punk Rock Flea Market will be partnering with We Are Family, a senior outreach group, and Positive Force DC, a self-described “hardcore activist collective,” to organize a food drive for D.C.’s low-income seniors. The food drive will be located at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church alongside the annual flea market. Attendees are asked to bring a donation of whole-grain cereal, pasta, rice, peanut butter, or canned vegetables, fruit, beans, or tuna. It might seem a little removed from Joey Ramone or Sid Vicious, but the truth is there’s nothing more punk rock than helping get rid of community food insecurity. Mohawks and leather jackets are not required but are encouraged. Punk Rock Flea Market runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Nov. 18 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1525 Newton St. NW. instagram.com/dc_punkrockflea. Free. —Julian Ford

Saturday: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with the Anvil Orchestra at AFI Silver

With its brilliantly designed nightmare sets and bleak view of humanity, this 103-year old silent masterwork of German Expressionism is as startling today as it was more than a century ago. The plot of the 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari unfolds through the eyes of naive Francis (Friedrich Feher). In flashback, he tells us of mad Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss), who traveled to county fairs with Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a somnambulist whom the doctor has brainwashed into doing his evil bidding. It all sounds like a typical gothic mystery (albeit one that has frequently been interpreted in the context of future German tyrants), but what makes this so unforgettable—besides the heavily mascaraed villainy of Krauss and Veidt—are the fantastical sets: Windows made up of skewed angles, roadways all abruptly curved and disorienting, and most of all those wildly distorted architectural forms that seem like the embodiment of moral decay. Watching Caligari is like watching the birth of the 20th century, of the modern world and its myriad evils. Its influence can be seen in horror movies of course, from the low-budget 1962 classic Carnival of Souls to David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween reboot, but you can also see its imprint in the surreal sets of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. For decades, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was only available in muddy prints, played on grainy UHF broadcasts  (a designation for radio frequencies) whose lo-fi gauze was an apt filter through which to experience its hallucinatory vision. But in this 4K restoration, the terror is that much clearer. See it with live musical accompaniment by the Anvil Orchestra, a duo consisting of Terry Donahue and Mission of Burma co-founder Roger Clark Miller. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with the Anvil Orchestra plays at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 at AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. silver.afi.com. $20. — Pat Padua

Ongoing: Kee Woo Rhee at Gallery B

You can’t fault landscape photographer Kee Woo Rhee for being a homebody; her Gallery B exhibit, Conversing with Nature, features images not only from her home country, South Korea, and her adopted country, the United States, but also from Patagonia, New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland, and Canada. The Silver Spring-based photographer has a soft spot for the American West; a sweeping, five-image vista of autumn trees in Colorado is a symphony of yellow, red, orange, and brown; a photograph of hoodoos at Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is notable for its dusting of snow, which could easily pass for powdered sugar; and in an image of canyon walls from Colorado suggest marbleized beef sheltering a thin strip of blue river. An image from Utah’s Zion National Park, adds a splash of whimsy, with its unreal, candy-colored depiction of a winding road. A few images are more humble, such as an ambiguous, black-and-white portrayal of spindly aquatic plants, or a small A-frame building set against an impenetrably snowy Icelandic background. But when she chooses to go big, the results are striking. In an image from Iceland, she captures brilliant green aurorae, seen both in the sky and in a lake reflection below, while another image from Iceland fruitfully pairs a receding wall of striated volcanic cliffs with the smooth, glistening surface of the water. One deceptively complex work comes from Scotland’s Isle of Harris; the waterscape channels Mark Rothko, pairing no fewer than six distinct shades of blue in the distance with a large swatch of beach-sand white in the foreground. Conversing with Nature runs through Dec. 4 at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. bethesda.org. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Ongoing: We are forever folding into the night at HEMPHILL

Artist Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi investigates invasion and equilibrium, weaving harmony through tension, nature in celestial experiences, and dreams into reality in her newest exhibition on display at HEMPHILL Artworks. Ilchi’s paintings merge seemingly contrasting spaces as a commentary on sociopolitical landscapes, drawing inspiration from her own Iranian American heritage. Each artwork is formed from poured paint that Ilchi crafts into scenes of solace found in vastness. The acrylic and watercolor give bold blues, greens, and reds that uncover earth and heaven. Some works intertwine Tazhib patterns, or Islamic illuminated gold, as frames or small archways bridging land and atmosphere. Other works show elements falling to earth, some appearing as saucers or meteors, shattering the separation between distant environments. Trees give way to the moon in the sky, hinting at an unexplored frontier with unknown galaxies beyond the familiar chaos of our individual worlds. Ilchi’s We are forever folding into the night combines Persian art with Western abstraction in a way that preserves the conflict inherent in interference. Ilchi, finding home in D.C. after immigrating from her birth home of Tehran, Iran, understands blending cultures to find clashes and belonging. Like West and East, with unease comes comfort, with fear comes courage, and with shade comes light. We are forever folding into the night runs through Dec. 22 at HEMPHILL Artworks, 434 K St. NW. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Viewable in person and online at hemphillartworks.com. Free. —Anupma Sahay

Thursday: Two Girls One Ghost podcast at Miracle Theatre

Challenging fear with humor, best friends Corinne Vien and Sabrina Deana-Roga laugh their way through haunting tales and ghost stories on the Two Girls One Ghost podcast. Spooky Season comes to the Miracle Theatre this week when the hosts of the paranormal comedy podcast fly in on broomsticks to perform a live show. The Podcast’s ghostesses will take the audience through their latest misadventure when they set off for the haunted house of their nightmares … the Conjuring House of Hollywood infamy. A site of authentic paranormal phenomena, the Conjuring House connects you to “the other side of existence,” according to its website. Visitors can explore every part of the 18th-century Rhode Island house—still home to many non-living former residents—during the Conjuring House’s overnight GHamping (ghost camping) experiences. Corinne and Sabrina might have the right idea—what better way to spook and take away scares, stories, and evidence of actual hauntings than by holding hands with a friend? The event begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 12 at Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE. unionstage.com. $25. —Anupma Sahay

Friday: Jacq Jill at Suns Cinema

DJ and curator Jacq Jill has made a name for themself in the American underground by spinning “techno-adjacent” sets in and out of the District for nearly a decade, and they’ve shared the stage with other notable nightlife staples like Flotussin, Jon Charles, and Kotic Couture. The Texas native was even featured in Boiler Room’s 2019 North American Tour. “Being from Texas, being queer, I always want to play rooms that people see themselves in,” Jacq told the Washington Post back in 2021. This week, they’re bringing their talents to Suns Cinema with “For the Freaks,” a dance party to soundtrack your Friday the 13th. Jacq, Baltimore’s Rox Reed, BWO, and D.C. selector Mike Harvey are joining forces to share what’s being marketed as “cosmic industrial sounds that will leave you properly deceased.” Don’t miss this spooktacular, all night party. Jacq Jill performs at 10 p.m. on Oct. 13 at Suns Cinema, 3107 Mount Pleasant St. NW. sunscinema.com. —Kaila Philo

Saturday: Gilded Lily at Dance Place

Burlesque began as a way of making fun of the Victorian era’s upper class. The word burlesque literally means a play, story, or novel that makes a serious subject seem ridiculous—“lowbrow satire of highbrow society” is how Baltimore magazine put it. Centuries ago, the art form didn’t revolve around the female body and the male gaze. As times changed, burlesque developed into the classic images that we think of today: female performers wearing crystals and mink coats, and costumes made for striptease. The dancers performed under pseudonyms, and the shows were designed for men. Comedy was still present, but burlesque was, obviously, no longer appropriate for families. Censorship and the growing film industry relegated burlesque to strip clubs and porn theaters by the mid-20th century. But Baltimore has seen a burlesque rebirth in the 2000s. This go round, the art form is more about self-empowerment and taking back authority of one’s own body—and the Gilded Lily Burlesque troupe is at the forefront. Like the Moulin Rouge-style dancers of old, these performers use feather boas, stockings, pasties, and jewels in their choreography. But they’re playing with these stereotypes so that they can break them down. This weekend Gilded Lily brings Return to Glamour, the troupe’s first live show since the pandemic, to Dance Place along with eight performers from D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Return to Glamour begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 14 at Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE. danceplace.com. $10–$30. —Mary Scott Manning

Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: Call Me Dancer at Edlavitch Jewish Community Center

Dance films, especially the fictional ones, tend to focus on an individual, emotional story arc. The dancer might be contending with external things: the impending audition and the doubters, injury, or complicated romance. But the films present their greatest obstacles as internal: fear, pride, lack of focus or motivation. We love these stories, but for actual dancers dealing with rent payments and social media and family obligations and health insurance, these films don’t always feel true-to-life. The new documentary Call Me Dancer offers a counterpoint. Manish Chauhan, the main character, deals with internal obstacles, too, as he builds his career in professional ballet. But the documentary presents the real-life dynamics that always deeply factor into a dance career and how far one can go in it. As the Village Voice notes, it’s a work that engages the politics and economics of the dance world. Chauhan’s lack of family support, his late start in ballet, and his chance connection with a famed ballet teacher all affect his career. So does his relocation from Mumbai to Israel to New York, and the politics of each place. Realistic as it is, Call Me Dancer is also feel-good—and you can catch a screening of the film, produced by Leslie Shampaine, as part of JxJ, the Edlavitch DCJCC’s music and film program. The film screens at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 and at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, 18, and 19 at the Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 16th St. NW. jxjdc.org. $12–$14.—Mary Scott Manning

Monday: The Bride of Frankenstein at Angelika Pop-Up

Loneliness is a scary thing. At least, that’s the linchpin of Universal Studios’ 1935 follow-up to its wildly successful sci-fi horror picture Frankenstein, about the macabre progeny of a scientist playing God. Nearly all key figures from the original production return for the sequel, guided by the masterful director James Whale, complemented by John P. Fulton’s breathtaking special effects, and elevated by Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the weathered and tormented creature. Seamlessly transitioning from where its predecessor left off, The Bride of Frankenstein brings the Monster back into the fold, despite villagers believing he had perished. Left to his own devices and devoid of any guiding presence, the Monster begins to ruminate on his isolation, eventually developing a yearning for friendship and companionship. Running parallel to this plotline is Henry Frankenstein’s remorse over bringing the creature to life, which is entangled with the coercive schemes of Doctor Septimus Pretorius, who wishes to resurrect a female body with an artificial brain. This leads us to Elsa Lanchester’s elegantly eerie, and surprisingly brief, turn as the Bride. To this day, remnants of this iconic character endure. Emma Stone’s upcoming film Poor Things has an unmistakable affinity with Lanchester’s Bride, who now serves as a conduit to delve into contemporary ideas surrounding womanhood and male desire. The character of the Bride herself is a product of patriarchal ambition, created to be the perfect mate for the Monster, embodying the idea of a woman as an object of male satisfaction. When viewed from this lens, Bride reveals a greater depth and richness than it did back in 1935. The Bride of Frankenstein screens at 2 p.m, 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market, 550 Penn St. NE. angelikafilmcenter.com. $10. —Ryan Oquiza

Monday: Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway at Lost Origins Gallery

In 2005, long before people had access to phones with high-tech cameras, Hisham Mayet, co-founder of the U.S.-based music label Sublime Frequencies, visited the historic Jemaa el-Fna plaza in Marrakesh, Morocco, and other Moroccan locations to film charismatic street musicians and the large crowds they attracted. At that time, there was little footage available of the performers who were also known to block efforts to record them unless they got paid. The result was a film, Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway. The DVD release of the movie is sold out, and it is not available for streaming, but Mayet and fellow Sublime Frequencies label head Alan Bishop will be showing it and talking about it at the intimate Lost Origins Gallery in Mount Pleasant this week. Musical Brotherhoods offers a sensory overload with its camerawork: close nighttime footage of musicians playing buzzing sounds on stringed instruments like the pear-shaped oud, percussionists banging noisily on handheld drums, and vocalists singing or chanting, with dust in the air and the only lighting coming from small lanterns placed at the musicians’ feet. This one-hour effort also briefly shows food stalls, merchants, and people getting intricate henna designs on their palms. The documentary, however, only lists the names of musicians such as Troupe Majidi at the end closing credits and has no narrator or interviews with the performers. It also has no guests explaining the lyrics. Mayet tells City Paper that this was intentional: “I was aesthetically focused on not doing it. I wanted the audience to see what I was seeing.” The film screens at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 at Lost Origins Gallery, 3110 Mount Pleasant St. NW. lostorigins.gallery. $20. —Steve Kiviat

Thursday: Curtis Chin at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

In his coming-of-age memoir, writer, director, and activist Curtis Chin details growing up in Detroit in the 1980s as a gay Chinese American kid. Everything he learned, he says now, happened in the Chinese restaurant his family owned, Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine. Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is structured like a menu, broken into sections such as “Appetizers and Soups” and “Main Entrées.” Chin’s memoir started as a personal project for his siblings, nieces, and nephews. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit and anti-Asian hate increased, Chin decided to take the project more seriously. All told, the memoir is 10 years in the making. Chin and his family don’t live in Detroit anymore and Chung’s has since closed, but, fittingly, he misses the food the most, he says. Chin is visiting 30 cities in support of the book, due out Oct. 17, and D.C. is third on the list. Curtis Chin speaks at 7 p.m. on Oct. 19 at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G St. NW. dclibrary.org. Free; books available to purchase. — Kaela Roeder

Friday and Saturday: WIT’s Not a Pyramid Scheme at Studio Theatre

Get it, girl! Washington Improv Theater’s current show, Not a Pyramid Scheme, which closes on June 10, satirizes one of the most pervasive and insidious aspects of contemporary scamming culture: multi-level marketing (MLM). From (in)essential oils to clownish makeup and god-awful leggings, many of us have been subjected to a friend’s attempts to sell us some products or—even worse—join them in a MLM scheme. Using #GirlBoss and #BossBabe rhetoric to peddle ideals of women’s self-empowerment, these companies promise a community of like-minded individuals. “There’s something so personal about MLMs because they rely on interpersonal relationships,” says Not a Pyramid Scheme’s co-director Clare Mulligan. “A lot of people recruit their family or their friends, and they claim to be creating a community. But if you question the company or if you leave, you immediately lose that community.” Mulligan and her co-director, Kaelan Sullivan Fleury, have been in the same WIT improv group, Hellcat, for seven years, and find this zeitgeist moment of hucksters and charlatans—including the recently imprisoned Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the recently released false heiress Anna Delvey—utterly fascinating fodder for an improv show. “Kaelan and I both think that there’s a lot of humor involved in the dramatic irony where the audience and the performers know different things,” Mulligan explains. “A founder of an MLM presents themselves in a carefully crafted way. Think of the cult of personality and the false backgrounds for Holmes and Delvey. We might begin there and then immediately cut to a new scene showing that everything they just said was a complete lie. We really love to build up these big, bombastic, flamboyant characters, and then deflate them with the truth.” Beyond a scripted opening spiel that sets the scene for the evening, the rest of the program is completely improvised, with a cast of 13 comics becoming motivational speakers, successful entrepreneurs, and others who #SlayEveryday. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to embrace this humorous takedown of postfeminist capitalist exploitation! Washington Improv Theater’s Not a Pyramid Scheme runs at 7:30 p.m. on June 9 and 7 p.m. on June 10 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. witdc.org. $15. —Colleen Kennedy

Saturday: Seventh Stanine Festival at Rhizome 

D.C. art-pop group the Caribbean founded the Seventh Stanine Festival in 2017. The band’s Matthew Byars tells City Paper via email that they chose the performers on this year’s bill because they are “interesting, thoughtful, cool people who are making art against all obstacles.” Sound-wise, that means the 2023 lengthy lineup in the yard of the Rhizome house will include experimental, post-punk, and hip-hop performers, plus DJs playing avant-garde and jazz sounds.  As for the name of the festival, Byars, who is also a co-host of the NPR-distributed music podcast Essential Tremors, says “it popped into my head randomly and the two words sound good together … I’m in education and a stanine is a unit of measurements often used on standardized tests.” Musicians like Philadelphia-based guitarist Bill Nace and the locally rooted Bushmeat Sound will be offering some cacophonous sonics while author and former City Paper contributor Marcus Moore will be DJing. Longtime D.C. word-slingers the Poem-Cees will be orating clever phrases over beats that hearken back to the late-’80s approach of De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers. D.C.’s Boat Burning will deliver their all guitar avant-classical wall of sound, the Caribbean will present literary lyrics with tuneful yet artsy music blending UK, Brazil, and U.S. rhythmic rock influences. Columbus, Ohio’s Brian Harnetty will present aural collages that incorporate spoken and musical sounds from archives he’s been given access to. The closing band on the bill, Brooklyn’s Zwei Null Zwei, includes former D.C. punk scene musicians Eli Janney (Girls Against Boys), James Canty (Nation of Ulysses), Sohrab Habibion, and Geoff Sanoff (Edsel). They’ll be finishing the festival with some propulsive Krautrock-inspired tuneage with that genre’s distinctive motoric beats. Seventh Stanine Festival runs noon to 8:30 p.m. on June 10 at Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW. rhizomedc.org. $25. —Steve Kiviat 

Through Saturday: Garden Variety and Jujyfruits at Art Enables

Sweaters and coats have been packed away, spring has officially sprung, and Art Enables has three joyful, airy shows to celebrate the season. Art Enables is an art gallery and education program that assists artists with disabilities with showing, marketing, and selling their work, as well as giving showcases to other working artists. Garden Variety is mounted in the main work area of Art Enables’ space and features botanical paintings and works on paper, along with a floral installation by the design team at Sweet Root Village. In one lower level gallery, an exhibition titled Jujyfruits features Art Enables artists alongside visiting artists from across the U.S. As the title suggests, these works look positively mouthwatering, coming in an array of candy-coated hues and abstract shapes. Some take on gelatinous, blobby, huggable forms, like nebulous sculptures by artists A.T. and Amelia Briggs, and others are sharp like rock candy crystals, but they all complement each other. Down the Street: Rhode Island Avenue is an immersive installation by Art Enables artists and visiting artist Amanda Burnham. It’s a love letter to the neighborhood and feels like a pop-up book come to life, featuring giant drawings and paintings of Rhode Island Avenue NE landmarks and businesses like the Woodridge Neighborhood Library, Zeke’s Coffee, and the “Welcome to Brookland” sign. Unfortunately, you can’t take Rhode Island Avenue home with you, but the works in the other two shows are available for purchase. Art Enables’ Garden Variety and Jujyfruits run through June 10. Down the Street: Rhode Island Avenue runs to Aug. 19 at Art Enables, 2204 Rhode Island Ave. NE. art-enables.org. Free. —Stephanie Rudig

Wednesday: Elliot Page for Pageboy, virtually at Sixth and I

Elliot Page joins Loyalty Bookstore at Sixth & I for the release of his memoir, Pageboy. In 2007, on the heels of an Oscar nomination for his critically acclaimed performance in Juno, Page glowed in the spotlight as Hollywood’s newest darling actor. But as Page outwardly shined bright, his inner self dimmed. Just prior to the release of Juno, Page saw his true self—a trans person. As in movies, Page began to play a part in his reality. To be a Hollywood star, the actor hid himself, subduing his newly discovered queerness under a watchful Hollywood and societal gaze. While navigating the power dynamics of an immutable establishment, expectations to live up to his star, and—in an era even more limited to binary expression than today’s—Page retreated into silence and shadows. Performances became habitual, no longer limited to the movie set. The pressure to be someone else, someone that fit the image of a celebrated actor, proved to be a stifling nightmare. Pageboy is Page’s story of emergence—his truth as a trans person and voyage to shine as his authentic self. In Pageboy, Page tells stories about dark moments from his professional journey, romantic relationships, and experiencing transphobia. Page is an author, director, producer, and actor currently starring in the series The Umbrella Academy. Elliot Page talks about Pageboy at 7 p.m. on June 14, virtually with Sixth & I, 600 I St. NW loyaltybookstores.com. $12; $35 with signed book. —Anupma Sahay

Ongoing: Photographs by J.S. Herbert, Jo Levine, and Gary Anthes at the Stimson Center

The Stimson Center is an international relations think tank, but it’s currently collaborating with a local Studio Gallery to mount a photography exhibition that focuses on “how our environments shape us, and how technology, or the lack thereof, impacts our cultures and wellbeing.” The Bridging the Disconnect purview is broad—broader than the small collection of images by J.S. Herbert, Jo Levine, and Gary Anthes can fully encapsulate. Still, the individual images are greater than the sum of their parts. Most of the photographs document either people or architecture. In the former category, Anthes offers an enigmatic image of a toddler in Guanajuato, Mexico, sleeping next to industrial-strength kitchen blenders and stools painted with yin-yang symbols; another Anthes image features a cheerful-looking youngster poking his hand out of a wood-and-canvas dwelling in Cambodia; and a third by Anthes depicts a worker in Cuba whose bucket, clothing, and backdrop are varying shades of green. Some of the architectural images are blandly corporate, but others offer visual appeal. One image by Levine depicts a curved latticework ceiling with spatial distortions that make it hard to tell what is up and what is down. Another by Herbert captures light reflecting energetically off ripples in water behind the cross-hatching of a fence. And one glass building facade photographed by Levine features a pleasing mix of pastel hues arranged vertically, unexpectedly echoing a 1950s abstract stripe painting. Bridging the Disconnect runs through July 6 at the Stimson Center, 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. studiogallerydc.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

After a week away, City Lights is back with a roundup of things to do and people to watch. However, if it looks a little slim today that’s because so much good stuff was already highlighted in last week’s Spring Arts Guide, which includes tonight’s book talk at Little District Books with Dr. Jake Newsome, author of Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust; Friday’s Betty Who show at the Anthem; and Rio street band Monobloco at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park on Saturday. Not to mention, RIOT! Funny Women Stand Up, Margaret Cho, and Black Violin.

Friday: SHE:DC Art Show Opening Party at La Cosecha

In honor of Women’s History Month, Shop Made in DC is back with SHE:DC. The monthlong initiative, now in its third year, is meant to illuminate women identified makers. SHE:DC kicks off with an art show opening party at La Cosecha on March 10, but there will be curated art shows throughout the month featuring more than a hundred local artists, panel discussions, and pop-ups with emerging businesses. All proceeds of the initiative go to the SHE:DC microgrant, which will be awarded to the winners of the final pitch competition at the end of the month. Shop Made in DC founder Stacey Price emphasized that, like their stores, SHE:DC is a way to gather and invest in local artists. And, despite the “She” in the title, Price noted that your pronouns don’t have to be “she” to be a part of the initiative. SHE:DC Art Show Opening Party runs from 5 to 9 p.m. on March 10 at La Cosecha, 1280 4th St. NE. shopmadeindc.com. $18.92–$24.57. Additional events scheduled throughout the month. shopmadeindc.com. —Hannah Docter-Loeb

Friday: Native Sun and Cinema Hearts at the Runaway

Brooklyn rockers Native Sun are rolling through D.C. this weekend, bringing their quintessential early aughts-esque thrills to the Runaway. Sources (mainly the band’s bio) say that you simply can’t talk about New York’s rock scene without talking about Native Sun, and anyone wanting to return to those Meet Me in the Bathroom days will get a nostalgia boost with their sound. But equally exciting for Friday’s lineup are Cinema Hearts. The local ex-pageant queen meets power-pop band fronted by the former queen herself, Caroline Weinroth, put on an enthralling show full of high-energy theatrics and tiaras. Melding ’60s girl-group sounds with surf guitar riffs and pop punk, Cinema Hearts grow bigger by the show, so don’t miss the chance to be able to say you saw them when. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. on March 10 at the Runaway, 3523 12th St. NE. therunawaydc.com. $14.64–$17.85. —Sarah Marloff

Saturday: National Hip-Hop Museum Induction and Opening Ceremony at 1919 18th St. NW

New York City might be the birthplace of hip-hop music, but the nation’s capital is making a significant contribution to the culture with the creation of the new National Hip-Hop Museum located in the heart of Adams Morgan. The museum will officially open their brand-new, 6,000-square-foot facility on March 11 with a Grand Induction Ceremony for legendary rappers CL Smooth, Special Ed, and Dres of Black Sheep, as well as the grand opening of the museum’s flagship retail and event space. “Watching the museum grow from pop-up experiences to induction ceremonies to an art gallery to a retail space and dispensary is truly a thing of wonder!” Master Gee of the pioneering rap group Sugarhill Gang and NHHM’s executive director, tells City Paper. “Our dispensary, the Orbit Shop, will release limited edition cannabis strains in honor of each inductee.” The hip-hop museum is the brainchild of now CEO Jeremy Beaver, aka DJ Boom, who also owns Listen Vision Studios, the renowned production studio on Georgia Avenue NW. In the works since 2019, the official NHHM location will contain the largest selection of hip-hop memorabilia on the East Coast including vintage apparel, sneakers, toys, and records. “Our new location serves as the place where all aspects of the museum come together,” says Beaver. “Events, inductions, cannabis, art, and, most importantly, a lot of fun!” The opening ceremony kicks off Saturday with a special red carpet hosted by Grandmaster Caz and  NHHM historian Jay Quan, and featuring VIP guests DJ Doo Wop, DJ Kool, D.C. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio, Events DC President and CEO Angie Gates, Rock the Bells Radio, and other music industry luminaries and media outlets. Inductee Special Ed and DJ Akshun Love will perform. The National Hip-Hop Museum’s Grand Induction Ceremony and Opening Party starts at 4 p.m. on March 11 at the National Hip-Hop Shop, 1919 18th St. NW. hiphopmuseumdc.org. $108.55–$188.58. —Sidney Thomas

Ongoing: Prayer and Transcendence at GWU’s Textile Museum 

Prayer rugs in the Muslim faith are the physical dawn for daily prayer, offering safe, clean spaces for worship and involving religious iconography for spiritual connection with God. The George Washington University Textile Museum’s exhibition Prayer and Transcendence explores prayer rugs from across the Muslim world, drawing parallels between rugs of different origins and spotlighting thematic emblems. Over centuries through Hajj (religious pilgrimage), Muslims curated a global identity. Prayer and Transcendence displays rugs dating back to the 16th century through the 19th century and takes visitors through the distinct and bridged regions of Ottoman Türkiye, Safavid Iran, and Mughal India. Muslims across these years and lands practiced prayer while compassed by prayer rugs connected by motif iconography—archways leading to the botanic, idyllic kingdom expressed in the Quran; lamps to light the path and affinity to God and community; and trees and pitchers to symbolize fruits of virtue. Idols of crescent moons and stars, composed by contemporary day iconography to represent knowledge, date back to Ottoman Türkiye rugs, as shown in the exhibition. Prayer and Transcendence demonstrates how prayer rug iconography remains a thread connecting modern-day Muslims to God and a centuries-old community. Prayer rug motif icons represent the theology, culture, and history of the Muslim faith, transcendent of time and territory. On Saturday, March 11,  present-day calligraphy masters Aishah Holland and Nihad Dukhan will lead a daylong workshop with a tour, artist talk, and Islamic calligraphy workshops. Prayer and Transcendence runs through July 1 at the Textile Museum at the George Washington University, 701 21st St. NW. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. museum.gwu.edu. Free.—Anupma Sahay

Friday: El Gran Combo at MGM National Harbor

Sixty years after first forming, Puerto Rico’s El Gran Combo are still drawing large crowds eager to dance to the band’s powerful Afro-Caribbean sound. Nicknamed the University of Salsa due to the number of great musicians who’ve spent time in the ensemble, El Gran Combo can give classes in creating propulsive bass, keyboard, and percussion rhythms, potent horn bursts, call-and-response vocals, and choreographed dance moves. While their longtime leader, 96-year-old pianist Rafael Ithier, only makes occasional appearances with the group, his methodology is ingrained in their well-rehearsed sound. Although they have only on occasion had albums on large corporate American labels, their busy touring schedule and long discography of releases on Puerto Rican and international labels have cemented their legendary status in the Spanish speaking world. El Gran Combo’s acclaimed live sound is tight and proficient yet it’s not formulaic as they incorporate short instrumental interludes with doses of improvisation via skittering beats on timbales and pounding on congas. Skilled at entertaining dancers spinning slow or fast in front of the stage, the group’s trio of vocalists occasionally sing romantic, slow-paced ballads, but most of the time employ fast-tempoed lead and backing melodies. Simultaneously with their singing, the vocalists suavely move their arms in unison and slide their feet like an old-school Motown combo. In 2021 El Gran Combo released an album with Christmas songs entitled De Trulla Con El Combo. It seems likely they’ll kick off the holiday season with some grooves from that effort. El Gran Combo play at 9 p.m. on Nov. 25 at MGM National Harbor, 101 MGM National Ave., Oxon Hill. mgmnationalharbor.mgmresorts.com. $119–$199. —Steve Kiviat 

Saturday: Tim Doud’s Prolepsis at HEMPHILL

Tim Doud’s exhibition at HEMPHILL is composed of three works, with the impression of contained struggle threading through each piece. Painted fabrics are overlaid on canvases and bridge adjacent canvases in one grid work. Another work is a large intersection of several painted fabrics. A third is a collection of painted fabrics arranged in a cubist dynamic. The result is striking bursts of lines and colors, hundreds of details that transform the works individually and collectively from chaos to balance. The painted fabrics appear random at first glance, creating a sense of disorder, but are actually placed in harmony, signaling the artist’s exploration of equity in conflict. Prior to Prolepsis, Doud worked in portraiture and captured costumes in paint. Doud found meaning in the textiles composing the costumes—symbolism from its structure and source. Prolepsis’ construction showcases the artist’s appreciation of this symbolism drawn from fabric patterns, and centers familiarity while being impartial to where familiarity is found. As the exhibition’s press release notes: “Each painting professes the potential for a positive outcome. Each is the equivalent of a social vestment. No doubt you will recognize a fabric you have worn.” Prolepsis runs through Dec. 23 at HEMPHILL Artworks, 434 K St. NW. Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. hemphillfinearts.com. Free. —Anupma Sahay

Sunday: Bruce Falkinburg at Photoworks

It’s been a melancholy couple of months at Photoworks, first with October’s posthumous retrospective of works by leading D.C. photographer and photography educator Mark Power, and now with a remembrance of the photography of Bruce Falkinburg, a longtime teacher at the Glen Echo-based studio. Falkinburg, who died this past summer, taught large-format photography, lighting, and darkroom technique, and the nearly 30 images on display reflect this focus. Some of Falkinburg’s landscape work is impressive, such as the intricate brambles in a series titled “Trees and Branches.” But his portrayals of discrete objects are more impressive. One series offers lovingly shaded still lifes of such objects as baseball mitts. Another depicts sunflowers—not with their petals perfectly symmetrical, as the viewer expects, but rather twisted and askew, with clear signs of physical deterioration. Similarly, a series of images of fallen leaves lingers on their signs of decay, such as small holes and pockmarks. Perhaps the most successful of Falkinburg’s traditional black-and-white images is “Clouds-1,” which somehow manages to transform the airy wisps of a cloud into a form that resembles licking flames. The exhibit’s most notable work, however, may be “Final Vision and Memories,” a five-by-five matrix of mounted black-and-white Polaroids that range from portraits to still lives to street scenes; the work’s title and visual style suggest an elegiac mood that closely fits the exhibit’s purpose of memorialization. The retrospective runs through Jan. 8 at Photoworks, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Saturday 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday 1 to 7 p.m. glenechophotoworks.org. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Sunday: Laura Tsaggaris at Miracle Theatre

Capitol Hill-based singer-songwriter Laura Tsaggaris is a serious artist, belting out confessional folksy and alt-country ballads, both when she’s solo or with her band Laura and the Mood Ring. But when it comes time for the holidays, she shifts gears, lightens the mood, and opens up to friends and community, because she’s all about that holiday spirit and loves sharing that joy with others. “The band reflects the friends and community I’ve built here, and it’s just unabashedly fun,” Tsaggaris tells City Paper about her holiday hustle with her band (plus a trio of backup singers for the occasion). Together, they rock around the Christmas tree, covering classics—Elvis’ “Blue Christmas,” Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”—with alt-country, funk, and rockabilly spins, all of which are featured on her album Get in the Mood. This year’s concert at Miracle Theatre is the second of what Tsaggaris hopes will become an annual holiday event: “There was a wonderful feeling from it last year, especially coming out of the pandemic. And it just felt like a big hug from everyone.” She describes the event as a “Thanksgiving palate cleanser.” It’s an opportunity to relax with friends, blood and chosen family, and head into the holiday season with “some good vibes.” She also notes that dressing festively is all part of the joy. Tsaggaris and company have been working on some new covers this year as well as a blues original to share at the concert, which also serves as the vinyl release party for Get in the Mood. After getting in the mood at the Miracle, the party continues over at As You Are Bar for a free karaoke party. Put on your ugliest holiday sweater and dance off those gravy calories while listening to reinvented Christmas favorites. Get in the Mood With Laura Tsaggaris starts at 7 p.m. on Nov. 27 at Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE. unionstage.com. $20–$40. —Colleen Kennedy  

Starts Wednesday: GALA Film Fest spotlight, Santo vs. the Evil Brain at Gala Theatre

Film archivists have long had to deal with the fact that only about 14 percent of films made in the silent era survive today. You think the digital age is less vulnerable? Think again. While it may seem like any title you’d want to see is available to stream somewhere, the reality is more complicated, especially when it comes to B-movies that some might prefer to let disappear. That’s why the work of Viviana Garcia Besne and the Mexican archive Permanencia Voluntaria is so important. Garcia Besne, whose family produced dozens of Mexican sex comedies in the 1960s and ’70s, has worked hard to preserve films that would otherwise have been relegated to barely watchable transfers on YouTube. As part of the GALA Film Fest: Latin American Innovation, which runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Columbia Heights, area moviegoers can see the fruits of Garcia Besne’s work: the 1961 feature Santo vs. The Evil Brain, the first of more than 50 features featuring the iconic masked wrestler known as “The Saint.” Directed by Joselito Rodríguez, the film was shot in Cuba in 1958, soon before Fidel Castro came to power. Legend has it the filmmakers had to smuggle the 35mm reels out of the country in order to escape the volatile new regime. The plot involves mad scientists who kidnap and brainwash Santo to make him obey their evil commands. It’s a murky narrative, and the best way to get through it may be to imagine a political subtext at work, but as you watch the repetitive footage of vintage 1950s cars driving the same grand Havana streets, the film gains a dreamlike quality. And thanks to the work of film archivists like Viviana Garcia Besne, the movie looks better than it has in decades. GALA Film Fest: Latin American Innovation runs through Dec. 4; Santo vs. the Evil Brain screens at 4 p.m. on Dec. 4 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. galatheatre.org. $10 per screening. —Pat Padua

Thursday: My Body, No Choice at Arena Stage

“In the early 1970s, my sister Bridget and I went to a women’s consciousness-raising session weekly in a friend’s living room near Catholic U. We talked about our bodies and read eye-opening books like Our Bodies, Ourselves as most of us already subscribed to Ms. Magazine and many read Betty Friedan’s game-changing book,” Molly Smith, Arena Stage’s artistic director, tells City Paper, reflecting back on a formative pre-Roe v. Wade memory. “Mostly we talked and laughed and cried and learned and listened to our individual and collective stories about being a woman and feminists. Those sessions forever changed my life. I was in that circle of women who got to know each other over a single year, and we had this place to reveal our deepest secrets.” In her last directorial venture for Arena, Smith takes on My Body, No Choice, a series of monologues about reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy in a post-Roe America. Written by renowned women playwrights such as Lee Cataluna (Home of the Brave), Lisa Loomer (Roe), Dael Orlandersmith (Stoop Stories), Sarah Ruhl (In the Next Room, or the vibrator play), Mary Hall Surface (Perseus Bayou), and V (The Vagina Monologues), the works are personal, profound, audacious, and utterly fearless. Joining the ranks of these established feminist playwrights is Fatima Dyfan, an up-and-coming writer and Woolly Mammoth Theatre New Work Fellow, whose monologue covers taking a pregnancy test. “As a younger Black woman, there were a lot of other things that I already had to deal with with my body,” Dyfan says. “While I may not have had an abortion, at the end of the day, I am fertile. And that possibility for me exists. I reflected on how limited and scared I felt, how I didn’t know about resources available for me, how unsure I felt in my own body.” In addition, Arena Stage is inviting women, trans men, and nonbinary individuals to share stories about their bodies and freedom that will air on the monitors throughout the theater during the run of the play. My Body, No Choice runs Oct. 20 through Nov. 6 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. arenastage.org. $18. —Colleen Kennedy

Saturday: Oktoberfest at National Landing

Arlington may be more than 4,000 miles away from Oktoberfest’s origins in Munich, Germany, but that’s not stopping the National Landing Business Improvement District from celebrating the annual festival with food, beer, and live music. The star of the show is the Alte Kumpel Band, which specializes in polkas, marches, waltzes, and other music “familiar” to the United States and Europe. Fittingly for Oktoberfest, Alte Kumpel sings in both German and English and performs wearing traditional Bavarian clothing. While you get your fill of festive music, National Landing has also put together games and a variety of food and beverage deals. Participating restaurants include Crystal City Sports Pub, Enjeera, Freddie’s Beach Bar, Los Tios, Beauty Champagne & Sugar Bar, and Portofino. They’ll be serving up marinated meatballs, pretzels, cider, and plenty of German lager. Registrants will get a free stein with their first beer purchase and discounts on following orders. Dress up, bring your kids or your dogs, and get ready for a fun, food-filled fall day. National Landing’s Oktoberfest runs noon to 4 p.m. at 556 22nd St S., Arlington. nationallanding.org. Free. —Sarah Smith

Saturday: Madison Cunningham at Howard Theatre

“Will you take me as I am?/ In perfect obedience to all these demands/ I’m a child to the wonder but a victim of the change/ When I see you again/ will I know what to say?” Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Madison Cunningham kicks off Revealer with these heavy questions, paving the way for the rest of the album’s reflections and confessions. Just a year ago, Cunningham was performing at the Miracle Theatre, in the midst of writing her September 2022 album and earning comparisons to iconic artists like Fiona Apple and Stevie Nicks. Now, she’s on tour for Revealer and headed back to D.C. with music that takes an even deeper cut into her life. Cunningham’s latest work tackles a wide variety of emotions and themes—self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and apathy. The pandemic fueled many of these experiences, but the unexpected death of her grandmother compounded things. As Cunningham puts it, Revealer then became a way to process and heal. “Songwriting wasn’t this romantic outlet. It was not fun,” Cunningham explains on her website. “It was a constant reflection of how poorly I was doing as a human being.” Although driven by pain, the album is a work of beauty, a further honest telling of Cunningham’s life. Her guitar playing adds a captivating element to her storytelling, and the artist also brought in producer Mike Elizondo, who has worked with Apple. Whether you want to hear the evolution of Cunningham’s musical magic or need to reflect on your own life, the Revealer tour is sure to deliver an emotional reckoning. Madison Cunningham plays at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. ticketweb.com. $22. —Sarah Smith

Sunday: Diary of a Lost Girl at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Louise Brooks’ heyday as an actress was nearly 100 years ago. Yet, despite being a Jazz Age flapper pageboy, her timeless look wouldn’t be out of place in the 21st century. Her second film with German director G. W. Pabst, the 1929 silent drama Diary of Lost Girl features one of her most vivid performances—those 1920s eyes seeming to cast knowing looks at the following century. The plot follows a familiar melodramatic through line: Brooks plays Thymian, who in the course of nearly two hours is seduced by an evil brute (Gustav Diessl, and it’s not a coincidence that he played Jack the Ripper alongside Brooks in Pabst’s Pandora’s Box), is forced to give up her child and is sent to a reformatory—and that’s for starters. While the distinct lines of Brooks’ iconic hairdo would suit her for the stark lines of German expressionism, Pabst sets this modern woman in a more subdued environment of naturalism, all the better to showcase the mechanistic routines of reform school and let fly the chaos of the high-class brothels into which she graduated. While her character endures all manner of tragedy (and her inevitable downfall eerily mirrors the actor’s real life fate), Brooks remains a model of strength and compassion in a world where, as one character tells her, “all are lost.” Diary of a Lost Girl, with live musical accompaniment by pianist Andrew Earle Simpson, screens at 4 p.m. on Oct. 23 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. atlasarts.org. $25.—Pat Padua

Sunday: Watkins Family Hour at the Birchmere

If there is one common trait among professional musicians, it is this: They love talking about the artists who have inspired them. Case in point, Sean Watkins of Watkins Family Hour, a musical collaboration also led by his sister Sara Watkins. When I get him on the phone, the singer-guitarist-songwriter is in Nashville, having just performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame helping to kick off their three-year Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock exhibition. “It’s really, really cool,” Watkins tells City Paper. “We played with Chris Hillman last night, a Flying Burritos Brothers’ song called ‘Wheels’ that he wrote with Gram Parsons. He talked a little bit about how he wrote it and it was when he and Gram were living in a house together in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. It’s so cool ’cause that’s where we live and it makes us feel connected to that huge, crazy city through the history of country music and roots music.” That collaborative spirit will be on display when Watkins Family Hour perform at the Birchmere on Oct. 23. Starting in 2002 as a musical variety show at the Los Angeles club Largo, the Watkins siblings used each monthly performance to feature guest musicians. Now, 20 years on, the touring version has the same collaborative vibe as Watkins Family Hour aim to have local musicians join them for each show. “Locally, I don’t know who for sure might be with us in D.C.,” says Watkins. “Although my sister has a couple of people in mind.” Watkins Family Hour play at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. birchmere.com. $45. —Christina Smart

Ongoing: Freer’s Global Network: Artists, Collectors, and Dealers at the National Museum of Asian Art

While navigating the fast-changing world of the early 20th century, Charles Freer collaborated with a variety of dealers, artists, and collectors, amassing the paintings, stoneware, and bronzes that have been on display at the National Museum of Asian Art for a century. The museum’s newest exhibition highlights those individuals who shaped this global network that led to a diverse collection of more than 1,300 works. Across decades, Freer traveled the world, meeting local painters and ceramicists, he both purchased their works and informed their creations. Mary Stratton, a ceramist and collaborator of Freer’s, experimented with glaze and Raqqa ware, inspired by Freer to pair contemporary American works with antique Asian ceramics. Freer himself gained an appreciation for Islamic pottery through an American dealer Dikran Kelekian, who’s business procuring Asian art for enthusiasts such as Freer spanned continents. Freer also procured art directly from contacts in Asia, expanding his personal connections and aesthetic. Yamanaka & Company, an Asian art firm in Osaka, Japan, in particular, sold several ceramics to Freer over the course of 25 years, instilling in the collector a greater appreciation for the ownership history of an object. Freer’s travels through New York, Paris, China, Korea, Japan, and Islamic nations ultimately united a collection of diverse objects greatly influenced by his friends. Freer’s Global Network: Artists, Collectors, and Dealers opened Oct. 15 and runs indefinitely at the National Museum of Asian Art, 1050 Independence Ave. SW. asia.si.edu. Free. —Anupma Sahay

Welcome to Friday! City Paper is trying some different things as we move toward a digital-first existence. What does that mean for you? For starters, City Lights will now be delivered in one easy-to-access package every week. So check back here on Fridays for our recommendations and ruminations on the best and lesser known artsy events happening in our fair city. —Sarah Marloff

Open Saturday: LE DRIP: The Uncontainable Sauce of Black Essence

Blu Murphy, the D.C.-based artist and arts educator, is celebrating her Black community and featuring its stories in her current solo exhibit LE DRIP: The Uncontainable Sauce of Black Essence, on display at Alexandria’s Target Gallery. Using her elementary and middle school students as the subjects of her work, Murphy seeks to spotlight individuals who are often overlooked at the age they begin to become “unseen.” The series centers Black narratives in mixed media works combining photography and graffiti, as well as collage elements. As Murphy notes in the press release, the paint drips, for which the exhibition is named, represents the “uncontainable and undeniable sauce of the [B]lack essence,” the ingredients of which is the community’s “combined pain, triumphs, joys, strength, and swag.” By tagging the works with “I am Art,” Murphy challenges viewers to see and ask themselves to consider what is art and what is valuable? The exhibition itself pops against the white walls of the gallery. The stark contrast shines a spotlight on the untold stories of frequently undervalued individuals. Over the entrance of LE DRIP, shoes hang from the ceiling to remember lost community members. Emerging as the exhibit progresses is a breakthrough—a disenfranchised community that is seen. Black essence drips through each portrait and flows from one piece to the next, proving that the unseen leads to masterpieces. “I see art everywhere I go, most importantly in my community,” Murphy says. “Everyone is a work of art.” Through July 17 at Target Gallery, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. torpedofactory.org. Open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. —Anupma Sahay

Sunday: District Cinema: Flee

Patricia Nader is a film fan who’s spent the past two months planning the launch of District Cinema, a pop-up experience devoted to screening independent foreign film in slightly unusual settings. After weeks of organizing, the pop-up will pop up for its first time at the Adams Morgan Afghan Bistro, Lapis, on Sunday, May 15. The eclectic, swanky restaurant is an ideal setting for a screening of Flee, a Danish documentary about Amin, a queer Afghan refugee’s journey from Afghanistan to Denmark. The film puts a unique twist on the documentary format—director Jonas Poher Rasmussen opted to use animation to tell Amin’s story while protecting his identity. While Rasmussen won’t be there in person, District Cinema will share a pre-recorded Q&A with the director following the screening. “I launched [District Cinema] because I love film and I think D.C. has a need for more film events,” Nader tells City Paper. But it’s not just about movies. The hope is that District Cinema will not only host film screenings, but also feature food and drink specials—“To shed light on different cultures through film, but also through other mediums,” says Nader. That’s exactly what this first event aims to do. Ticket holders will be treated to a specialty cocktail—or mocktail—as well as a selection of Afghan appetizers from Lapis. The Bib Gourmand restaurant, owned by a local Afghan family, has been a great partner, says Nader. Likewise, the city’s Immigration Film Festival has also joined forces with District Cinema to help make the event happen. Nader, whose day job is in the hospitality industry, says the pop up is a passion project that she’s doing with the help of some friends. That passion is clear. District Cinema isn’t looking to profit from ticket sales. Instead, all proceeds will be donated to Afghanistan Youth Relief Foundation, an organization that supports displaced Afghan refugees in the region and throughout the country. For now, Flee is the only screening on the calendars, but Nader’s hopeful District Cinema will host monthly events, with fundraising components (a June event that will likely support Ukraine is in the works). But first, let’s enjoy this one. District Cinema presents Flee and fundraiser starts at 6:30 p.m. on May 15 at Lapis, 1847 Columbia Rd. NW. instagram.com/districtcinema_. $55. —Sarah Marloff

Ongoing: Sporarium 

Friends Artspace shines a light on sculptures—quite literally—in its new exhibition by Yuko Nishikawa. Sporarium showcases ceramic pendants, sculptures, tableware, and lamps, among other objet d’art, some plunging from the ceiling and some bewitchingly arranged along the walls and tables of the small gallery. Nishikawa’s roots in Brooklyn and Japan inspire her whimsical ceramics, which are created in all colors and shapes. As a designer and contemporary ceramicist, Nishikawa plays with edges and coloration to create pieces alive with story. She experiments with lighting to create movement and illuminate the ceramics in the exhibition. As the light moves through the edges and colors of the pieces, alternate surfaces are dimmed and highlighted, colors are softened, and shadows create gradients. The industrial application of lighting constructs movable designs to continue each story. As the ceramics move and evolve, Nishikawa’s journey with her ceramics remains constant, even as the pieces spring up from her handwork and transform in the depths of her kiln. Friends Artspace calls the artist’s connection with her works as her “delight” to reunite with the ceramics as she retrieves them, and her excitement for their reveal. With new parts of each fantastical ceramic to discover as the light continues to shine, refracting on surfaces and illuminating different areas, the pieces can feel both recognizable and unexplored. Nishikawa seeks to trigger wonder with the mystery of each piece. “‘Piku piku’ is a Japanese onomatopoeia that describes involuntary movements caused by unexpected contact,” says Nishikawa. “I want my work to make you feel piku piku, tickling something deep down inside you.” Through May 27 at Friends Artspace, 2400 N. Edgewood St., Arlington. friendsartspace.com.  —Anupma Sahay

Wednesday: Cloud Cult

Minnesotan indie rock band Cloud Cult had grand plans for the release of their long-awaited studio album, initially slated to be unveiled to the public in March 2020 via collaborative performances with the Minnesota Orchestra. Those plans, and the album, were shelved when the pandemic hit, but the delay gave the band an opportunity to reevaluate the material. “There was so much transition going on personally and globally, that it felt like spending time with the songs and letting them adjust to the new paradigm was important,” explains lead singer Craig Minowa. “Some of the songs got ditched, and some of them drastically changed themselves to adjust with the times.” The resulting effort, Metamorphosis, focuses on global change and the need for people to make serious adjustments to face global crises. Now finally hitting the road, including a stop at City Winery on May 18, Cloud Cult, who have always promoted eco friendliness, calculated a way to offset any carbon emissions they’ll have during this tour. “We figured out how much co2 we’re making with our flights, with our travel, with our electricity on stage and in the hotels,” Minowa tells City Paper. “We figured out how many trees need to be planted in order to absorb all that. So this tour, we’re probably going to plant over 1,000 trees just to suck up what we’re putting out there.” The band also picked up where they left off in March 2020, finally playing three sold out shows with the Minnesota Orchestra this past April. “It was absolutely surreal to go from a pandemic where we’re performing over our webcams to being in a venue with a couple of thousand people, all wearing masks, but still sitting shoulder to shoulder,” says Minowa. “That was pretty wild.” Doors open at 6 p.m. on May 18 at City Winery, 1350 Okie St. NE. citywinery.com. $25–$35. Proof of vax and masks required. —Christina Smart

Ongoing: Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue

On June 17, 1972, the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex were broken into. Since then, the word “Watergate” has come to represent far more than just the building. The term is used in reference to the burglary, the White House’s attempt to cover up their complacency, and President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the matter. Fifty years after the historic event, the National Portrait Gallery explores the political scandal that ensued through its exhibit, Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue. The exhibit is part of the Portrait Gallery’s One Life series, an initiative that explores the biography of a single figure, theme or moment in time. Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue features twenty-five objects in various mediums—paintings, sculptures, cartoons, and, of course, portraits of those involved in the scandal (including Nixon himself). “The nation has been fascinated by Watergate for more than fifty years,” Portrait Gallery’s acting senior historian Kate Clarke Lemay says in the exhibit’s press release. “The incident and its aftermath have evolved in the decades since into a uniquely American meme, buoyed by depictions in film and pop culture and regular reference in modern political discourse.” The goal of Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue is to “examine the crisis and its contributors through the lenses of the artists and critics of its time,” Lemay continues. The exhibit is an attempt to bring visitors “face-to-face” with all those involved, demonstrate how current events influenced the art and portraiture of the era and vice versa. Though Sept. 5 at the National Portrait Gallery, 8th and G streets NW. npg.si.edu. Free.  —Hannah Docter-Loeb