FRIDAY, MARCH 31
BLACK FEMINISM: From Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, a civil rights and healthcare advocate born in 1898, to present-day delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC celebrates the Black women who have fought for justice and equality in the District. The exhibit, a partnership between the National Women’s History Museum and DC Public Library, opens this weekend in-person and online. (Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and virtual; through 2024; FREE)
CHEROKEE DAYS: Spend your weekend with storytellers, flute players, woodcarvers, pottery makers, dancers and more at Cherokee Days Festival, where the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes — Cherokee Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians — will showcase their history and culture. (National Museum of the American Indian; Friday-Sunday; FREE)
GROWING SEASON: Spring is springing. Give it a helping hand this weekend at the Anacostia Community Museum’s Urban Gardening workshop, where participants will clean up planting beds and prepare for the upcoming growing season. If you can’t make it in person, tune in virtually to get schooled in gardening 101. (Anacostia Community Museum and virtual; 10 a.m.-12 p.m.; FREE)
SCENTSATION TOUR: Art museums invite us to see. Sometimes, they ask us to listen. On rare occasions, they invite us to touch. But how often do they invite us to smell? This weekend, you can put your nose to work at the Hirshhorn Museum’s Scentsation Tour, which pairs perfumes with select works on view in Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection. (Hirshhorn Museum; 12 p.m.; FREE)
MORE: Weekend of Wordplay (Planet Word; 10 a.m.; FREE), Africa Out Loud (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; 6 p.m.-8 p.m.; FREE), Studio by Robin Bell: Closing Celebration (Chevy Chase Pavilion; 6 p.m.-8 p.m.; FREE), You Don’t Love Me, Yet: Artist Talk with Mats Biger (Dupont Underground; 6 p.m.-9 p.m.; FREE), National Symphony Orchestra: Korngold and Ravel (Kennedy Center; Friday and Saturday 8 p.m.; $39+), The Nosebleed (Woolly Mammoth Theatre; through April 23; $5+), From Heart to Heart: A Celebration of Rachmaninoff’s 150th Anniversary (JCC of Greater Washington; 7:30 p.m.; $40), The Wiz Dansical (THEARC Theater; 7:30 p.m.; $20), Cherryfest: Nicki Minaj Pink Friday Dance Party (Wunder Garten; 8 p.m.-11:30 p.m.; FREE), Desmond ’Desii’ Hyson (Ritz Carlton Hotel; 8:30 p.m.-12 a.m.; $70+)
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
SEARCHING FOR SHAKESPEARE: Four hundred years ago, and seven years after his death, William Shakespeare’s First Folio was published, bringing nearly all his plays together in one publication. This April, Folger Shakespeare Library is teaming up with DC Public Libraries to celebrate with a month of talks, workshops, an exhibition, a citywide scavenger hunt and more. Pass the Story On: Searching for Shakespeare kicks off this weekend at a library near you. (DC Public Libraries; through April; FREE)
CAMELLIA COMPETITION: Cherry blossoms may be hogging the spotlight, but camellias are also in bloom. This Saturday, Brookside Gardens invites you to visit their camellia garden and welcome spring. If you’re feeling competitive, you can show up early with your own flower to participate in their annual Camellia Competition. (Brookside Gardens; 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; FREE)
BOWIE ARTS FESTIVAL: Come for the music, dance and theater performances, stay for the food trucks. This weekend, the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts invites you to its Arts Festival, featuring community performances, activities for kids and more. Stick around for the evening gala, which features a catered dinner and a Broadway Bound performance. (Bowie Center for the Performing Arts; 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; $5+)
PINK IN THE PARK: Another spring weekend, another long list of cherry blossom events to choose from. For your consideration: Pink in the Park in Arlington. The afternoon event features an eclectic lineup of live music with headliner Black Alley, a beer and wine garden, food trucks and immersive art installations, all under Arlington’s blooming blossoms. Pregame the event with Pink in the Pool, a family-friendly morning of swimming and art at the park’s indoor aquatic facility. (Long Bridge Park; 3 p.m.-7 p.m.; FREE)
LA DOLCE VITA: La vita really is dolce with an aperol spritz in hand. This Saturday, the Italian Cultural Society of Washington, DC invites you to AFI Silver for an aperol spritz cocktail party before a screening of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini’s “gigantic, kaleidoscopic, bitingly satiric fresco of European life.” (AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center; 7 p.m.; $13)
MORE: Renovators 101 (Compass Real Estate; 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $199), Spring Literature Festival (Milian Park; 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; FREE), Fort Reno Historic Exhibit Tour (Pepco Harrison Street Substation; 10 a.m.; FREE), Monoprints Workshop Line and Texture (Washington Printmakers Gallery; 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; $150), Dressed to Kilt 2023 (Omni Shoreham Hotel; 10:30 a.m.; $250+), NGA’s First Saturday, including Hilton Carter lecture (National Gallery of Art; 10:30 a.m.- 4 p.m.; FREE), Spring Carnival & Book Sale (Petworth Library, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; FREE), Bloomaroo at The Wharf (The Wharf; 2 p.m.-9 p.m.; FREE)
SUNDAY, APRIL 2
SAKURA SUNDAY: We’ve got Japan to thank for our cherry blossoms. This weekend, celebrate Japanese culture with Sakura Sunday at National Harbor. Participate in pre-festival yoga, then enjoy a kimono demonstration, a library-sponsored reading, jujutsu demonstrations, a tea ceremony, a performance by KuroPOP, a Japanese and Korean pop cover group, and more. (National Harbor; 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; FREE)
MY BODY, MY FESTIVAL: This weekend, your concert ticket can go towards a good cause. Head to Pie Shop for My Body, My Festival, an inaugural benefit concert for the DC Abortion Fund featuring Jenna Camille, Elena La Fulana, the Honey Larks, Biomorphic Forms and Attic Sessions. Support reproductive rights, and get a dance in while doing it. (Pie Shop; 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; $25)
HAMILTON’S HISTORY: Unfortunately, Hamilton is not coming to metrobar any time soon, but a critical analysis of the hit music is. Join Profs & Pints DC this Sunday for Hamilton’s History Remix, a look at what the musical got right and wrong about Alexander Hamilton, the American Revolution, and the birth of the United States — and what those rights and wrongs tell us about American mythmaking. (metrobar; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.; $14.31)
UNDER THE STARS: You don’t have to venture into the middle of nowhere for stargazing. This Sunday, you can spend a night under the stars in the heart of downtown D.C. Head to the Eisenhower Memorial for Under the Stars, a free night of stargazing via telescopes that celebrate the 65th anniversary of president Dwight Eisenhower’s proposal to create NASA. (Eisenhower Memorial; 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.; FREE)
MORE: CBD Tea + Wellness with Elevated Tea Company (Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital; 11 a.m.; $36), Princess Mononoke (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema; 11 a.m.; $11), Whole Lotta Sole sneaker and vintage sale (Hilton Fairfax; 12 p.m.-6 p.m.; $10+), Cherry Blossom Wine & Beer Festival (Hook Hall; 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.; $59.99+), Capital City Symphony: Songs of Hiawatha (Atlas Performing Arts Center; 5 p.m.; $35), COUP 53 (AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center; 7:40 p.m.; $13)
