Talk to Me, Baby
Major General Joe Engle will speak at the Air and Space Museum on Thursday. Credit: U.S. Air Force Photo
Monday:
>> Tonight from 6:45 to 9 p.m., VCU professor George Munro presents an illustrated lecture titled Siberia: Traversing the Russian Frontier at the S. Dillon Ripley Center. He'll "highlight the area's various cultures, beautiful architecture, and historic past. From Krasnoyarsk in the village of Shushenkoe (Lenin's exile home) to the historic towns of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Irkutsk." $40.
>> The National Museum of Women in the Arts' Sort-of-Jane Austen Reading Series continues tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. with Love's Victory (or Not?), read by Mary Wroth and directed by Jessica Burgess.
Tuesday:
>> At 7:30 p.m., Sixth and I hosts Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) for a discussion with Congressional Quarterly’s Lydia Gensheimer, in which "Polis will ... share how his experiences as an openly gay man and his Jewish background have informed his professional and civic pursuits." $6.
>> The L Street Borders hosts New York Times reporter Scott Shane and author Steve Luxenberg at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion of Luxenberg's book, Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret.
>> The American Art Museum hosts another Collectors Roundtable tonight at 7 p.m. At Collecting Outside the Canon, collector of African American art Walter O. Evans will discuss his collection and tricks of the trade.
Wednesday:
>> Science fiction fans: head to Reiters Books at 7 p.m. for a night with ten sci-fi authors, including Arlan Andrews and Catherine Asaro.
>> Politics and Prose hosts David Ignatius reading from his new novel, The Increment at 7 p.m., and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Shadowland at 7:30 pm. If you can't make it tonight, but want to catch Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, be at the Shirlington Library on Thursday at 7 p.m. for a reading, and then head to the Shirlington Busboys afterward for a book signing.
>> At 6 p.m., the 14th Street Busboys hosts a celebration for the launch of D.C. Central Kitchen's official cookbook, Feeding the Soul of the City, which includes recipes from high profile chefs as well as stories about D.C. Central Kitchen.
>> The Business Center at Flashpoint hosts a panel discussion geared toward artists and organizers who'd like to learn more about how to approach the media to get attention for their work. DCist's own Heather Goss will appear on a panel that includes WaPo chief art critic Blake Gopnik, and Jacqueline Law, director of marketing for Washington City Paper. 1:30 p.m., $40.
Jim Lehrer is featured in Saturday's Inside Media event at the Newseum. Image courtesy MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.
>> Next American City is hosting a salon on how blogging has created a new breed of urban activists, as part of their URBANEXUS series. DCist editor-in-chief Sommer Mathis joins fellow panelists Matthew Yglesias of the Center for American Progress, David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington, Reihan Salam from The Atlantic & The New America Foundation, and Ben Adler of americancity.org. 7 p.m. at The Space. RSVP here, $15 in advance or $20 at the door, includes a one-year subscription to Next American City.
>> Tonight at 6:30 p.m., $10 gets non-members into the Corcoran for a panel discussion titled Behind the Scenes: The Installation of Systematic Landscapes. Corcoran staff Philip Brookman, Elizabeth Parr, Nancy Swallow, and Cory Hixson will "give you a behind- the-scenes look at how the Corcoran researched, transported, and assembled these monumental works of art into our space."
>> Or, join author Phillip Lopate for a discussion at Politics and Prose on his book of essays titled Notes On Sontag, which both praises and criticizes [Sontag's] writing, disagreeing with her, for instance, on whether her fiction or her essays constitute her greatest achievement."
>> From 6:45 to 9 p.m. tonight at the Navy Memorial, hear from guidebook author Reid Bramblett how to Travel Inexpensively Without Being Cheap. $40 general admission.
>> Or, be at the Lockheed Martin Imax Theater in the Air and Space tonight at 8 p.m. for To the Edge of Space and Beyond with Major General Joe Engle. Engle will discuss his extensive experience, including "more than 14,700 hours in the air piloting more than 185 different types of aircraft, and ... over 225 hours in space." His career began in April 1966 when NASA chose nineteen astronauts "as support crew and backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10 and 14."
Saturday:
>> Today's Inside Media discussion at the Newseum is with PBS' Jim Lehrer. Lehrer has been a journalist since 1959, and will discuss his career as well as his new novel Oh, Johnny, which "follows an idealistic young Marine whose dreams of big-league baseball and romance are deferred when he is deployed to the Pacific during World War II."
>> This morning at 10:30 a.m., the Anacostia Community Museum hosts Remembering the Colored Soldier: A Living History, which will focus on the stories of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. The Company B re-enactors group will share the soldiers' stories on the campgrounds of the museum. For reservations, call 202-633-4844.