(Photo Courtesy of Artechouse)
By DCist contributor Jordan-Marie Smith
Movies, salad, and sound vibrations. This week doesn’t have to be a boring one. We’ve made it easy for you to find what you like, whether it be a Queer Grrrl Movie Night, celebrating Mandela, or seeing one of Saturday Night Live’s head writers. We’ve got you covered.
MONDAY, JUNE 25
A BETTER PREZ: Are you a sad desk lunch eater—a walking stock photo of a woman holding salad and laughing? If so, Pineapple DC presents: Salad for President is what you’ve likely been looking for. Julia Sherman has whipped up her own cadre of artists, musicians, and writers to create recipes and stories. The food most adored in the series? Salad. Sherman’s publishing series takes the simple construction of veggies tossed together to elicit something more, begging you to connect with your salad in a way you never have before. Sherman will be in conversation with Pineapple DC co-founder Atara Bernstein. (General Assembly, 6:30-8:30 p.m., $25)
FEEL THE VIBES: Get in touch with your chakras by indulging in the meditative practice of sound healing. Instructor Dante Baker leads students through pranayama, the practice of breath control for relaxation, alongside sound healing. He’ll use crystal and Tibetan bowls to bring your spiritual alignment into harmony. (65 Rhode Island Ave NW, 7-9:30 p.m., $20)
MIX IT UP: Make your Monday a little less mundane with a night of awkward, hilarious, and all-too-true stories. This Monday, Story District is taking its funniest, most emotional, and strangest stories and telling them again. Story District’s Mixtape Vol 1 brings talented performers like Shawna Renee, Meredith Whipple, and Rachel Hinton to the Union Stage space to remix fan-favorite stories from past shows. (Union Stage, 7:30 p.m., $20)
BLACK PANTHER: Join the Department of Parks and Recreation at the Petworth Recreation Center this Monday for a screening of Black Panther: one of the best action movies some of us somehow still haven’t seen or are maybe seeing for the third (or tenth) time. Either way, bask in the highlights of tight bods and big action. (Petworth Recreation Center, 8:30 p.m., FREE)
MORE: Mexico Election 2018 analysis and discussion (Woodrow Wilson Center, 1-2:30 p.m., FREE)
TUESDAY, JUNE 26
IMMERSIVE ART: Delve into a visually stunning night at Artechouse’s latest installment, Naked Eyes, which ends on Saturday. The artists behind the “audio-visual light exhibition” want interacting attendees to feel the lines between what’s virtual and what’s reality. The artist team behind the project, Nonotak, encourages visitors to find emotional connections with the geometric light shapes around them so they can become more in touch with themselves. Admission is 12 and up from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and 21 and up from 5:30-11 p.m. (Artechouse, $15)
TEMPTING: Break out the velvet and sequins as the musical Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of The Temptations. takes you down the winding journey of the most important R&B group in America. Despite the glamour, not everything is perfect in the light of stardom. Get all the drama you can out of one of the first groups to put dance moves and sweet melodies together for an entire nation. (The Kennedy Center, 8 p.m., $59-$175)
MORE: Camelot (Shakespeare Theatre Company, 7:30 p.m., $44-$94), “He Named Me Malala” (United Nations Foundation, 6 p.m., $10)
(Photo by Kmeron)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
JAZZ: NSO Pops conductor Jacomo Bairos and Grammy-winning jazz performer Gregory Porter come together for one night of booming baritones and bright orchestral sounds with their very own night of jazz. The gifted singer and songwriter is not only known for his great presence in the jazz world but in the R&B sphere, as well. Spend a night with Porter as he serves you with some of his greatest hits that landed him the coveted achievement of Best Jazz Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards in 2014 and 2017. (The Kennedy Center, 8 p.m., $29-99)
IT’S A FESTIVAL, FOLKS: The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival brings both tourists and locals alike because there’s one two things we can all agree on: food and crafts. The 2018 festival begins this Wednesday with plenty of stages for learning Armenian and Catalonian heritage, including the impressive practice of creating a human tower as a form of protest. As always, there will be folk dancing galore and plenty of craft spots with interesting art and lessons on folkways. (The National Mall, 11:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., FREE)
MORE: Capelton (The Howard Theatre, 9 p.m., $25-$60), Sam Gellaitry w/ eu-IV, MFUNDISHi (Flash, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $15-20)
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
MANDELA: Come celebrate the man who liberated a nation at Serenade! Choral Festival: Mandela at 100. Over a few days, several performers are coming together to celebrate the icon’s posthumous 100th. This night features performances from the Tuva Republic and Canada. The choral groups will use their voices to communicate the joy and heartbreak of Nelson Mandela’s philanthropic life. Maybe you’ll get touched by the spirit and become a bit of a humanitarian yourself. (The Kennedy Center, 6 p.m., FREE)
QGMN: There’s a happy place for all of us and one of those places is wherever Queer Grrrl Movie Nights might be. The intimate group gets together every so often to help expand representation in film and the queer space with free movie nights. Their latest showing features Natasha Lyonne in But I’m A Cheerleader (1999), a cult classic that’s equal parts hilarious and tragic. Rendezvous at Republic Restoratives while watching Lyonne shine. It’s a fitting space, given it’s D.C.’s only queer-women-owned distillery. (Republic Restoratives, 6-11 p.m., FREE)
MICHAEL CHE: Ever since Saturday Night Live added Michael Che as head writer and co-host on Weekend Update, the show’s been spicier than ever. Hear from the man who made it possible. Che makes a stop on his stand-up tour in the city without representation, and maybe he’ll use his sarcastic and aloof wit to give us a joke or two about our own woes in office. (Warner Theatre, 8 p.m., $25)
We’ve removed a reference to Camp Newseum Nights because the event will take place on July 27, not June 27.
