Upcoming at Rhizome (click on event for more details):

Rhizome and DC DADA present: Erotic August, a month-long celebration of pleasure practices and erotic joy.

At a cultural moment when there are plenty of excellent reasons to be angry about sexual politics, the aim here is to create a joyous, inclusive space, encouraging everyone to move toward their best erotic lives in spite of it all.

The festival features and welcomes participants across race, gender, sexual proclivity, and adult ages. One visual artist mailed her work from Ukraine, eager to get it out of harm’s way. Another sent his work from Latin America, where he isn’t safe to display his homoerotic themes.

“Our collective expectations are so meager,” say lead organizer Anna Josephson. “Is it safe? Is it consensual? That’s not good enough. It should be happy. It should be hot."

Events include:
*gallery opening + film screening Tuesday August 2
*erotic writing workshop August 18
*pleasure market August 20 & 21
*variety shows August 20 & 21
*online workshop on troubleshooting sexual pain August 23
*burlesque for beginners August 25

Gallery exhibit open during all events, or to make an appointment please email info@rhizomedc.org

Sunday August 7 * 2-6pm * outdoors at Rhizome * suggested donation $10-50 * all proceeds to Solidarity with Migrants * TICKETS

A benefit in support of the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, an all-volunteer coalition of 20+ organizations in the DMV who have been receiving migrants from the Texas/Mexico border since April. As part of a political stunt to pressure the federal government to enact draconian border measures, migrants are being sent every day in buses from Texas to DC and dropped off at Union Station. Since April, thousands of asylum seekers escaping poverty and violence have been greeted by local volunteers who coordinate food, clothes, travel, shelter and when possible, long-term solutions for those seeking to stay in the DMV area. Your support helps the network to continue providing the dignified welcome that these migrants deserve.

Featuring music by:
Glitterer
Son Cosita Seria
Silver 100
La Marvela

Piñata workshop & live piñata busting

Wednesday August 10 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Danny Kamins is an improvising saxophonist based out of Houston, TX. His current musical endeavors include playing in the Houston based groups Relative Dissonance, CARL, El Mantis, and Etched in the Eye as well as directing the jazz program at Rice University. “Kamins’ ‘cyclical’ style is filled with guttural multiphonics, piercing altissimo, and lightning fast runs that span the entire register of the saxophone.” -Juan Olivo, Byline Houston “Danny Kamins is awesome!” -Ruth Underwood

A fearless and charismatic presence, Simone Baron is a concert pianist, accordionist and composer of infectious energy. She engages with a broad range of musical languages, traditions, and art forms, and has performed throughout Europe, Israel and North America (Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center). In 2016, she founded the ensemble Arco Belo, leading them in performances of compositions and arrangements that reveal a gargantuan musical appetite which pulls language from the jazz, world and contemporary chamber music idioms orchestrated for strings, percussion, bass and piano/accordion. Simone's work focuses on experimenting, reimagining and forging a sound at the junction of the familiar and the avant-garde.

Saxophonist and composer Brian Settles has established himself as a rising force with a long-term artistic vision. Settles blends the outwardly engaging with the deeply personal, reconciling his intimate command of the jazz lineage with a commitment to his own experimental voice. To anyone who’s heard it, Settles’ warbling, viscous tone is immediately recognizable, and his solos are never too quick with their emotional payoff. Inky and warm, his playing can seem to hover weightlessly while simultaneously boring down. Critic Michael J. West calls Settles “absolutely heart-stopping on the bandstand … known for his versatility, expressiveness, and dizzying imagination” (Washington City Paper).

Keith Butler Jr is a drummer and composer based in Washington, DC. He stays busy as a sideman and is also a member/contributer of several bands including FIASCO, Keith Butler Trio, and Cal Rifkin.

2nd & 4th Wednesdays * online at 8pm Eastern * RSVP

A weekly guided dream-sharing hangout…. Welcome to the theater of your dreams—an inexhaustible source of images and stories that can provide entertainment and insight, and that requires no cable service and no subscription—just attentiveness and an open mind. Participants will share dreams, using a gentle, non-intrusive method for unlocking the metaphors that structure dreams (derived from the long-tested method of Dr. Montague Ullman). We’ll also talk about techniques for recalling and recording dreams, as needed.

This is a lay dream group, discussing our dreams within well-defined boundaries. Sharing dreams, and helping others examine dreams, is encouraged but not required, and no peer pressure to go beyond one’s own comfort zone is permitted in the group. Examining dreams is a form of self-awareness you can control within your own limits, and the leader has extensive experience in guiding dream groups. However, the Dream Cafe is not suitable for anyone with a diagnosed psychiatric disorder, or for persons who experience frequent nightmares with sleep paralysis or with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (which is accompanied by unique patterns in dreaming). The Dream Cafe is suitable for persons 16 and over. Persons under 16 should consult with a parent or guardian before attending. This online dream-sharing group endorses and abides by the Ethics Guidelines of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

Thursday August 11 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Xenojothsz - Richmond, VA Harsh Noise

Nate Scheible

Lazuli

Leper's Bell

Friday August 12 * 7pm * MASKS REQUIRED unless you are singing or playing a horn * RSVP

Jam nights are an opportunity for people to show up and create art together. Bring a guitar, sticks, sketch pad, didgeridoo, or your dancing shoes and come vibe. Amps, speakers, and microphones are provided. Hosted by experimental rock band Spark Isle.

Saturday August 13 * online at 1130am Eastern * REGISTER

Puppet Lab supports the development of works in progress: you can present work for feedback or direct others in lab to improvise parts/puzzle out specific scenes and how your show might work. Improvisation is central to our explorations.

Saturday August 13 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Kalia Vandever is a trombonist, composer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She released her debut album, "In Bloom" in 2019 which has been described as "the rise of an exciting voice for the music" (Seton Hawkins, Hot House Jazz Magazine). Kalia's sophomore album, Regrowth released in May, 2022 on New Amsterdam Records and "confirms her strengths as a composer and bandleader with a distinctly contemporary point of view." (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz)

Zara is a new ensemble led by saxophonist and composer Sarah Hughes. It includes saxophonist Brian Falkowski, violinist Jamie Sandel, french hornist Abram Wolfe Mamet, trombonist Kirsten Warfield, bassist Steve Arnold, and drummer Nate Scheible. Hughes' compositions provide structure for both conventional jazz improvisation as well as conceptual and collective improvisations by ensemble members.

Sunday August 14 * 2pm * in the backyard at Rhizome * $10-20 suggested but not required * TICKETS

In Winter and Spring of 2022, a team of local professors, students, and music producers used a recording studio built into a truck to record musicians from across the D.C. region. The goal was to record a wide range of styles, genres and languages, especially from artists who have had little access to recording equipment and haven't been heard widely. Many of the artists recorded as part of this project will perform short sets at Rhizome to celebrate the release of the free CD of recordings. There isn’t much shade, bring a hat or an umbrella!

RAW Band
Megan DiGeorgio & Erin Snedecor
Paapa-Berchie
La Marvela
Rocknoceros
Lofty Boys
Soroche
Dunia & Aram
Tributary Project
Maryland Youth Pipe Band

Monday August 15 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Hailing from the singularly vibrant musical hotbed known as Chicago, CHEER-ACCIDENT has been a creative, vital force in rock music for over 30 years. They constantly strive to surprise their audiences and themselves through relentless reinvention. From dreamy pop to angular art-rock, CHEER-ACCIDENT strikes a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio wizardry and the visceral excitement of a well-honed, explosive live rock band. The band is currently a septet, comprising of various members who have come and gone throughout the past two decades. Their body of work is unparalleled in its ambition and originality, and their most recent releases, “Putting Off Death” and “Here Comes The Sunset” (to name just two, on Cuneiform and Skin Graft, respectively) demonstrate how the band continues to improve with each passing year.

Tuesday August 16 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Jeffrey Silverstein is a songwriter living in Portland, Oregon. You Become The Mountain (2020), his debut LP was described as 'cosmic country with a gentle sweetness' by NPR and drew comparisons to Bill Frisell/David Berman. In April of 2021 Silverstein released Torii Gates, a new EP of psych-folk songs celebrating the unknown, small joys, and learning to be comfortable with transition. It features the pedal-steel work of Barry Walker Jr (Mouth Painter/North Americans/Rose City Band), Alex Chapman (Parson Red Heads) on bass and production from Ryan Oxford (Y La Bamba, Matt Dorrien, etc.).

Heaven Forbid is a country band from The District of Columbia. Featuring the sensational sounds of Tennessee Dave's pedal steel guitar and a rowdy rhythm section built from the ashes of lounge-punk favorites Baby Bry Bry & The Apologists, these high-falutin' rootin' tootin' sons of guns from Washington, DC are cowboy crooners for urban commuters.

Kevin Knight (aka Nevin Kight) Is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and recording artist currently based in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. With over a decade’s worth of recordings, Knight’s work cross-pollinates genres as naturally as a bee collecting honey. With elements of folk, cosmic country, psych pop, American primitivism, and drone. Knight’s songs tend to ache with heart and urgency, often speaking in awe and appreciation of nature, love, and the absurdly tragic comedy of the human condition. Lots of songs about plants and dogs.

CANANDAIGUA is the solo project of District of Columbia based artist Raul Zahir De Leon. His debut release for the project, Slight Return (2021), features a collection of twangy bedroom folk songs that explore the role of mythmaking and hero worship in America. De Leon pulls from a diverse set of influences and elements combined with a poetic songwriting style, blending together to form a unique sonic palette.

Thursday August 18 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * REGISTER

Join Hana, host of Pass the Mic Poetry, in an erotic writing and communication workshop. This workshop is themed on healthy sexual practice as a form of erotic communication: sharing goals and boundaries, exploring possibility, receiving feedback, experiencing vulnerability, and defining your own measure of satisfaction. Over the course of the evening, we will shape the concepts and sensations we bring into written works of vulnerable, erotic power. As a group we will define our space and goals before creating together. Bring the writing you already have or come prepared to write in-house through guided prompts and conversation. Between sessions of facilitated writing, we will provide structured edits of each other's work, culminating in a final reading and reflection. Wine provided.

Friday August 19 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Ashley Paul is an American multi-instrumentalist/ composer based in London. Her intuitive process integrates free form song structures with a focused approach to sound. Her trio project RAY explores fringes where melodies are dissected and slowly pieced together, alluding to shape but only occasionally binding together.

https://ashleypaul.bandcamp.com

Saturday August 20 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Femcee burlesquer Shortstaxx is psyched to be part of Erotic August bringing her new mission - being a Crone sex symbol - to the public. Shortstaxx is a 30+ year veteran of the DC and Baltimore underground performance scenes. As actor Kris Ruff, she busted her cherry squirting liquids (not that kind!) and bared her first breast (yes singular) on stage with DC's "only theatre company dedicated to smut" Cherry Red Productions. A decade-long member of DC's experimental, physical theater company Theatre du Jour, Kris co-created original plays with the ensemble and director. She has also played in a myriad of alternative/DIY productions in the DMV and Baltimore. Prioritize your pleasure women!

Lilbearboii Hi! This is Shane aka lilbearboi (on instagram). I have been writing and performing poetry since 2013. My work centers around the experiences of being a Black, nonbinary, queer, kinky, southern single caretaker in today's world. New to the DMV, I am extremely excited to get down and dirty with a whole new community of gays and theys! With a background heavily influenced by being in the frontline of many BLM movements and wrestling against anti-trans and LGBQ legislation since the early 2000's, each poem is barbed with rage against an unjust system but is still enveloped in love and tenderness. Soft, strong and sweet, yet a fierce protector, they don't call me little bear for nothing!

GHØST DIAMANTÉ (They/Them) - A DC metropolitan area Black, Queer/TransFemme performance artist who uses Drag, Dance, Rituals, Witchcraft, the Mystére, and other visual elements as a form of expression. They use elements at their disposal to help interweave and manifest a reality (meaning) which like many things in life fluctuates between the lovely spectrums we often see that free us yet limit us in the limitless. Hard/Soft, Lace/Leather, Dark/Light. Thus connecting, bringing you into the hyper-surreal fantasy of the things we Lust and obsess over in life. Our desires, our fears, the joy and pain we Experience in this communion.

Waldo Gloria Strange is a writer of queer erotic romance, among other things. They host an erotica podcast called "Midnight, Softly" where they read love letters written just for you.

Come with your questions and conundrums about sex and love! Artist and tarot reader Skye Marinda will be giving live tarot readings to audience members! Tarot cards are a deck of 78 playing cards that are traditionally used for fortune telling. Now Skye, along with many other modern practitioners, uses tarot as a tool for self reflection and growth. This is an opportunity to be reminded of who you are and to affirm it. Join me to light a fire under your passions and goals.

Sunday August 21 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

The Erotic August Festival shows you what you didn't know you needed, or totally knew you craved....

Katie Magician (they/she) has nurtured art and empowered self-expression through workshops, creative group activities, and multimedia rituals since graduating from the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. They dream of a future where societal and familial guilt and shame are overcome and all can live an integrated life as simultaneously social, sexual, and spiritual beings. Magician live in Mount Rainier, MD and is from Toms River, NJ. The Same Sharts, performed by Katie Magician, explores the erotic joys of consensual vivisection. Body parts and bodily fluids are fondled, swapped, and swallowed in a chaotic orgy of inter galactic proportions.

Hana Brouse is a New Mexican transplant who believes in the power of laughing during sex and cutting your own hair. They carry mountains and queer joy alike into their everyday energy as a communication therapist, poetry advocate, and community member. They'll perform spoken word poetry exploring gender, sexuality, sensuality, & grounded existence in this sensory experience of a body.

Renee Regan

Victoria Vixen

Tuesday August 23 * ONLINE at 7pm Eastern * RSVP to receive link

For many years, people with vaginas were told that painful intercourse (called dyspareunia) was the result of an emotional problem. Healthcare providers did not even look for other causes. Even now, the vast majority of sufferers are not properly evaluated, don't get an appropriate diagnosis, don't have a comprehensive treatment plan, or don't get enough time with their provider to execute a treatment plan adequately. This is an isolating experience and often results in the distancing of relationships and can even cause the end of a relationship. Sufferers experience low self esteem and negative self talk related to their inability to have sexual intimacy with a partner. This workshop offers explication, support, and practical solutions for sufferers of all genders, histories, and ages. Nurse Practitioner and experienced specialist Kelly Jenei uses a holistic and evidence-based approach. Over Zoom.

2nd & 4th Wednesdays * online at 8pm Eastern * RSVP

A weekly guided dream-sharing hangout…. Welcome to the theater of your dreams—an inexhaustible source of images and stories that can provide entertainment and insight, and that requires no cable service and no subscription—just attentiveness and an open mind. Participants will share dreams, using a gentle, non-intrusive method for unlocking the metaphors that structure dreams (derived from the long-tested method of Dr. Montague Ullman). We’ll also talk about techniques for recalling and recording dreams, as needed.

This is a lay dream group, discussing our dreams within well-defined boundaries. Sharing dreams, and helping others examine dreams, is encouraged but not required, and no peer pressure to go beyond one’s own comfort zone is permitted in the group. Examining dreams is a form of self-awareness you can control within your own limits, and the leader has extensive experience in guiding dream groups. However, the Dream Cafe is not suitable for anyone with a diagnosed psychiatric disorder, or for persons who experience frequent nightmares with sleep paralysis or with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (which is accompanied by unique patterns in dreaming). The Dream Cafe is suitable for persons 16 and over. Persons under 16 should consult with a parent or guardian before attending. This online dream-sharing group endorses and abides by the Ethics Guidelines of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

Saturday August 27 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Time is Fire is a band rooted in DC's post-punk scene but reaching out to embrace styles and sounds from across the world. Composed of players steeped in punk, dance and experimental music, Time is Fire mixes pan-cultural rhythms, floor-shaking grooves and acid-laced guitar into a mind-expanding geopolitical dance party.

Club U.S.A. (ex-Heavy Breathing) - P.P.R.: Psych, Pop, Rock

Knifing Around (Richmond, VA) is a six piece dance punk group from Richmond, VA and the project of producer Owen Martin. They will be releasing an EP on 9/9/2022 called "Don't Stab your Hand". This upcoming release blends elements of post-punk, funk, and noise electronics into a singular sonic vision. An unflinching dissection of politics, culture, and malaise in modern America.

Sunday August 28 * 10am-noon * MASKS REQUIRED * RSVP

Rhizome is pleased to announce the first meeting of our Youth Electronic Music Lab, for young people ages 11-18 who have experience making electronic music and are able to work independently on it. We hope to start a group that meets regularly to share space together while working and to give and receive feedback in a positive and encouraging environment. We plan to invite guest musicians periodically to share tips, talk music theory / composition, offer feedback, etc. Please bring a laptop and headphones. Bring a project you're in the middle of, and maybe a finished project to share as well.

Sunday August 28 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Queer Futures Past (I am Ghost and So Are You) is a multimedia installation and performance project examining personal and inherited queer erasure. Rae Red playfully address their secret, ignored, and partially imagined queer lineage through animation, movement and song. Using a playful adaptation of Spiritualist ideas of the 1840s as the visual landscape of the piece, Queer Futures Past crafts a non-linear narrative experience combining personal, familial, and cultural histories, summoning spirits, and examining notions of harm and healing.

Variety Show the Musical consists of short plays, performance art, and songs was created by Theresa Columbus, Izaak Collins, Cliff Doby, Ruby Fulton, Myles Hamilton, Caitlin Weaver, and Jacob Zabawa.The play creates the effect of a surreal vaudevillian variety show, even though several narrative and formal through-lines connect the “variety” of pieces. Different theatrical forms bump up against and expand each other, splashing into the poetry of everyday conversation.

David Greenfieldboyce presents "Ruby Creek", an original coming-of-age tale told with marionettes and shadow puppets in a traditional fairy-tale style. Performed with Katie Heffernan.

Thursday September 1 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Transparent Productions presents...

Joe Morris is "one of the most profound improvisers at work in the U.S." (Will Montgomery, The Wire) "He sounds like no one else." (Art Lange, The Wire)

Ken Vandermark, a fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate improvisation. He has led or been a member of many groups, has collaborated with many other musicians, and was awarded a 1999 MacArthur Fellowship. He plays tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and baritone saxophone, and was also a member of NRG Ensemble. In 1999, at 35, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Saturday September 3 * 10am-noon * REGISTER

Puppet Lab supports the development of works in progress: you can present work for feedback or direct others in lab to improvise parts/puzzle out specific scenes and how your show might work. Improvisation is central to our explorations.

Saturday September 3 * 4pm * in the backyard * TICKETS

Joe Bussard has been an invaluable collector and preserver of American music since he began canvassing for old 78s as a teenager in the 1950s in Frederick, Maryland. As a radio DJ, he has introduced the world to seemingly lost pre-war jazz, blues, country, gospel, and folk music. As the founder of Fonotone Records, he has produced over 100 records, documenting great acoustic guitarists like John Fahey and fiddle/bluegrass groups like his own Jolly Joe and His Jug Band. He was the subject in the 2006 documentary Desperate Man Blues and has been featured in countless other publications as the ”King of 78s.” In recent years, his health has declined but he is planning to join us at Rhizome to celebrate his 70 years of preserving American music. We will celebrate with music from:

Max Ochs & Neil Harpe (guitar duos) - Guitarist and singer-songwriter Max Ochs recorded for Fonotone Records in the 1960s as well as for Fahey’s Takoma Records label. Neil Harpe is a guitarist, painter, and printmaker who has been recording music since the early 1970s for labels like Adelphi Records. Combined they have over 140 years of excellent music making and will perform together at Rhizome.

The Capital Hillbillies, featuring Joel Bailes, piano, Pearl Bailes, harmonica, Brendan Bailes, slide guitar, are a DC tradition that goes back at least 40 years and bring the spirit of New Orleans to the heart of DC. With steam engine energy and carnival charm, the District's favorite street ensemble rolls out a good time shindig rooted in barrelhouse blues and hot jazz of the 1920s and 30s.

The Sardine Family Band is made up of local musicians from a variety of other ensembles who, under the direction of Marc Minsker, perform music from the South with an emphasis on the traditional and under represented classics from the American music cannon.

Sunday September 4 * 1pm * in the backyard * REGISTER

Itching to get creative? Come dye with me! This class will cover making and dyeing with indigo, including the basics of shibori (Japanese tie-dye).

You'll learn how to:
-make an indigo vat
-dye with indigo for long-lasting color
-tie up the cloth for a variety of beautiful patterns
-care for your indigo-dyed items

Each participant will receive 1 bandana to dye with. All other materials provided. You may bring a few additional items to dye from home. Small to medium sized items with 50% or more natural fiber content work best. In addition, wear clothing that you don't mind getting stained. Bring an apron if you wish, and rubber gloves if you have them.

Saturday September 10 * 1-3pm * Masks will be required for any indoor activities * All ages welcome * REGISTER

Urban sketching is the act of sketching on location in an urban area as a way of capturing a moment in time and deepening your experience of your surroundings. This course will help you get started with urban sketching, exploring basic drawing practices and psychological exercises to increase your creativity and artistic confidence. While we will be going over principles of drawing and perspective, this course is not about creating perfectly realistic drawings, and no drawing experience is needed. Instead, it is about the practice of capturing a feeling and the experience of being alive in a particular time and place. Developing a sketching practice can be an immensely spiritually rewarding and meditative experience, and sometimes the practice of sketching can be even more important than the final art you create. So please come with a sense of enthusiasm and you will get something out of this course no matter your experience!

Basic drawing and painting materials will be included with ticket purchase, but feel free to bring any additional sketchbooks or materials you want to experiment with.

Saturday September 10 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Matthew Klane and James Belflower collaborated on the graphic novel Hist, just published by Calamari Archive. They will present excerpts via performance + found sound + projection.

Matthew Klane is cofounder of Flim Forum Press. He has an MA in Poetics from SUNY Buffalo and an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His books include Canyons (with James Belflower, Flimb Press, 2016), Che (Stockport Flats, 2013), and B (Stockport Flats 2008). An e-chapbook from Of the Day is online at Delete Press; an e-book My is online at Fence Digital; and a chapbook, Poetical Sketches, is available from The Magnificent Field. He lives and writes in Albany, NY.

James Belflower is Teaching Assistant Professor at Siena College. As an interdisciplinary poet and critic, his work investigates how language mingles us with matter. He is the coauthor of the multimedia project Canyons (Flimb Press 2016) with Matthew Klane; The Posture of Contour (Spring Gun Press, 2013); Commuter (Instance Press, 2009); and Bird Leaves the Cornice, winner of the 2011 Spring Gun Press Chapbook Prize. His work appears, or is forthcoming, in Postmodern Culture, Journal of Modern Literature, Diagram, and New Delta Review, among others.

Lauren Bender lives and works in Baltimore. This will be Lauren’s first performance in at least five years, maybe more, and will feature a site-specific work based on Rhizome as a place and concept.

Sunday September 11 * 7pm * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS

Transparent Productions is proud to present the Vinny Golia trio with Vinny Golia on reeds, Ken Filiano on bass, and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums. Don't miss this opportunity to hear this great LA-based composer and woodwind player.

As a composer Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of Jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. Also a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Mr. Golia has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, The California Arts Council, Meet the Composer,Clausen Foundation of the Arts, Funds for U.S. Artists and the American Composers Forum. In 1982 he created the on-going 50 piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles.

Ken Filiano performs throughout the world, playing and recording with leading artists in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical, world/ethnic, and interdisciplinary performance, fusing the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless inventiveness. Ken’s solo bass CD, subvenire (NineWinds), received widespread critical praise. For this and numerous other recordings, Ken has been called “a creative virtuoso, a master of technique . . . a paradigm of that type of artist. . . who can play anything in any context and make it work, simply because he puts the music first and leaves peripheral considerations behind.”

Michael T.A. Thompson is an anomaly. T.A.'s palate encompasses an abundance of sound colors. He hears everything and plays with it in a way that's ever inventive and perceptively responsive. Thompson plays as he breathes. You'll always find him in the moment, inspired as well as inspiring. That's why you'll find him in the company of such a wide variety of musical artists, Jazz giants, including Charles Gayle, Nels Cline, Jason Hwang, Vinny Golia, Patricia Parker, Joe McPhee, Oliver Lake, Kidd Jordan, Fay Victor, Matthew Shipp, Uri Caine, Henry Grimes, Christopher Dean Sullivan, Marc Ribot, William Parker; The Shadow, Becket, reggae artist Owen Gray, as well as artists from classical to rap and beyond.

Saturday September 17 * 1pm * in the backyard * REGISTER

Itching to get creative? Come dye with me! This class will cover making and dyeing with indigo, including the basics of shibori (Japanese tie-dye).

You'll learn how to:
-make an indigo vat
-dye with indigo for long-lasting color
-tie up the cloth for a variety of beautiful patterns
-care for your indigo-dyed items

Each participant will receive 1 bandana to dye with. All other materials provided. You may bring a few additional items to dye from home. Small to medium sized items with 50% or more natural fiber content work best. In addition, wear clothing that you don't mind getting stained. Bring an apron if you wish, and rubber gloves if you have them.

Four Saturdays: October 8, 15, 22, 29 * 1-2:30pm * MASKS REQUIRED WHEN INDOORS * REGISTER

Not everyone knows how simple and easy it can be to make your own comics. That’s what participants will experience in this hands-on workshop with comics artist Nami Oshiro. Creators of all ages and skill levels are invited to learn how to make their own comic books, from planning, to pencils, to finished product. Comics are one of the most accessible art forms – if you have a story, you can make a comic.

Nami Oshiro is an artist based in the Washington DC-Metro area. She attended the Corcoran College of Art + Design, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Fine Art in 2012. She has been publishing her own comics independently since 2013, while her first professionally-published comic book is scheduled to be released by Holiday House in 2023.

Past events:

Archive: