Talk to Me, Baby
Your chance to see powerful poet Nikki Giovanni is this Thursday evening at the K Street Busboys.
DCist's guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area
This week, we have events featuring some very compelling and powerful women, including poet Nikki Giovanni, Condeleezza Rice, and artist Jean Shin.
Tuesday:
>> Award-winning author and biographer T. J. Stiles will be at Politics and Prose at 7 p.m. tonight for a discussion of his most recent book The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Wednesday:
>> At 3, 5:30, and 8 p.m. today, the S. Dillon Ripley Center hosts a screening of Chops, a film which follows three high school jazz bands in their journey to the 2006 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. Director Bruce Broder will discuss the film after each screening, as part of Jazz Appreciation Month.
>> Archaeologist Robert Ousterhout will discuss Mysterious Cappadocia: Rock-Cut Villages of the Byzantine Period at the Freer's Meyer Auditorium from 6:45 to 9 p.m. tonight. With no textual evidence on which to base his work, Ousterhout's research "relies on a close reading of the landscape and physical remains to reconstruct daily life in the wellpreserved communities of the 10th and 11th centuries" in ancient Turkey. $30.
>> Or head to the 14th Street Busboys at 6:30 p.m. for another in their series of religious and ethical Conversations, titled Is the Catholic Church out of date in terms of science, birth control, and same-sex attraction?.
Thursday:
>> At 7 p.m. tonight, Sixth and I teams up with the editors of The New Republic (including Jonathan Chait, Michael Crowley, Michelle Cottle, and Noam Scheiber) for a discussion titled The Obama Administration: 100 Days and Beyond. $8.
>> Or, be at the Zoo's Visitor Center Auditorium between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. tonight for a lecture with ornithologist Nigel Collar titled Birds and People: Bonds in a Timeless Journey.
>> Poet Nikki Giovanni (and Virginia Tech english professor) will read some of her poetry and discuss her work at what is sure to be a powerful event at 6:30 p.m. at the K Street Busboys. Free.
Friday:
>> Artist Jean Shin discusses her work at the American Art Museum at 7 p.m. tonight to celebrate her new exhibition in which she "employs a meticulous process of dismantling and alteration to create evocative sculptural installations that are composed of everything from worn shoes and lost socks to broken umbrellas and discarded lottery tickets."
>> The 14th Street Busboys brings us another interesting event tonight at 6 p.m. Amazing performance group Sol y Soul and the Book Fruits writing workshops co-host Words Alive! Fresh Writing from Young Authors, in which kids will read their own poetry, fiction and narratives, and sign copies after the performance.
Saturday:
>> Today's seminars at the S. Dillon Ripley Center explore A Road Map to Travel Writing and Research Explorer Alexander von Humboldt: A New Vision of the World.
Image courtesy of Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.
Sunday:
>> Sixth and I's second political lecture this week is with none other than Condoleezza Rice, in her first D.C. appearance since her State Department exit. She'll be joined by Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, in a "discussion on how to think morally and responsibly about the ideal of peace and the reality of war and on how to teach these perspectives in our classrooms." $25.
Next Monday:
>> Get your tickets now for a sure-to-sold-out Corcoran event with Maus creator Art Spiegelman. It costs $25, starts at 7 p.m., and will feature "Spiegelman [taking] his audience on a chronological tour of the evolution of comics, all the while explaining the value of this medium and why it should not be ignored."