Above and Beyond: Spring Arts Preview 2018

Whether your comic tastes run hot and spicy, a la Margaret Cho, or cool and dry, a la David Sedaris, you can get your fill of belly laughs at more than a dozen venues this season. And if you want it wild and way over the top? Hurricane Bianca will surely blow you right out of your seat at the Lincoln, while her drag sisters in the RuPaul Drag Race clan will likely leave you howling at the Warner, at the upcoming Hater’s Roast.

However, if you’re in need of more intellectual fare, look to readings at Politics & Prose and Kramers and discussion series at Sixth & I, where literatis like Ronan Farrow, Jake Tapper, Mark Bittman, and Hannah Jewell will be holding court (and signing their books). Or maybe you just want to sit back with like-minded Trekkies and catch a random episode of Deep Space 9, complete with booze (so much booze). Well, we have all that — and more! — in our semi-annual assortment of artistic miscellany.

THE ALDEN

The Old Firehouse
1440 Chain Bridge Rd.
Mclean, Va.
703-790-0123
mcleancenter.org/alden-theatre

• The Snow White Variety Show — Talented young actors offer a dramatic retelling of a classic story you thought you knew, in this case portraying the seven dwarves and telling their side of Snow White’s story. Part-talk show, part-reality show, and all wild comedy (3/10-11)
• Spring Break Quote-Along Movie: Clue — Board game-cum-classic movie-cum awesome quote-along akin to midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, only this time around, it’s Tim Curry with Madeline Kahn and gang. Guests are encouraged to “don your best secret identity, select your room, but leave your lead pipes and ropes at home” — instead, you can purchase a $5 prop bag, plus free popcorn (3/30)

AMP BY STRATHMORE

11810 Grand Park Ave.
North Bethesda, Md.
301-581-5100
ampbystrathmore.com

• Kevin McCaffrey w/Robert Dean — A night of stand-up from a longtime writer and warm-up act for The Late Show with David Letterman (3/22)
• Off The Top w/Jason Kravits — Combining improv, cabaret, and comedy for spontaneous entertainment (6/2)

ARLINGTON CINEMA N’ DRAFTHOUSE

2903 Columbia Pike
Arlington, Va.
703-486-2345
arlingtondrafthouse.com

• Josh Blue (3/9-10)
• Locavore Film Series: From The Back of the Room (3/14)
• T.J. Miller (3/16-17)
• Fullscreen Live: MacDoesIt (3/18)
• David Alan Grier — From Fox’s In Living Color, Porgy & Bess on Broadway and The Wiz on NBC (3/23-24)
• Fullscreen Live: CJ So Cool (3/25)
• Comedy Film Bucket List: Office Space (3/28)
• Carlos Mencia — Mind of Mencia Live (3/29-30)
• Bobby Lee — From Fox’s MADtv and Chelsea Lately (4/5-7)
• Locavore Film Series: Doeville (4/11)
• Pablo Francisco Live — From Comedy Central and MADtv (4/20-21)
• Keepin’ It Weird Wednesdays: Apocalypse Now Redux (4/25)
• Stand Up for Pits with Rebecca Corry (4/26)
• Chris Redd Live (4/27-28)

ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

202-399-7993
atlasarts.org

• Atlas Presents Film: Big Sonia — Focusing on a Holocaust survivor in America facing eviction to explore what it means to be a survivor and how this affects families and generations (3/13)
• Atlas Presents Film: Ghost Town to Havana (4/17)
• Silent Film Series: Andrew Earle Simpson: It (4/22)

THE BIRCHMERE

3701 Mount Vernon Ave.
Alexandria
, Va.
703-549-7500
Birchmere.com

• Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH) Awards (3/11)
• Carpenter’s Cook Off — An afternoon of food tastings from more than 20 restaurants, plus live music by the Alpha Dog Blues Band, live and silent auctions, and more (4/22)
• Charles Ross: One-Man Star Wars Trilogy (6/9)

BLACK CAT

1811 14th St. NW
202-667-4490
blackcatdc.com

• Deep Space Nine Happy Hour — One episode screens free, with drink specials (3/9, and every Friday, Backstage)
• Dr. Who Happy Hour — One episode screens free, with drink specials (3/10, and every Saturday, Backstage)
• Tainted Cabaret — Burlesque! Boylesque! Ballyhoo! USA Tour (3/16, Backstage)
• Queer Girl Movie Night: Stud Life (3/17)
• Underground Comedy Fest: Todd Barry — 30th Anniversary Crowd Work Tour (3/24)
• Underground Comedy Fest: The Overachievers All-Star Show (3/24)
• Film Screening: The Outhouse the Film 1985-1997 (3/25, Backstage)
• 13th Annual Hump! Film Festival — Curator Dan Savage has been bringing audiences a new kind of porn since 2005 (4/19-21)
• Eat Your Heart Out — A Fat Burlesque Revue (4/27)

CAPITAL ONE ARENA

601 F St. NW
202-628-3200
capitalonearena.com

• Martin Lawrence — Lit AF Tour with a bevy of firecracking comedians including DeRay Davis of Netflix’s How To Act Black, JB Smoove from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, syndicated radio personality Rickey Smiley, Michael Blackson aka The African King of Comedy, and Queen of Comedy Adele Givens (6/9)

DAR CONSTITUTION HALL

1776 D St. NW
202-628-1776
dar.org/conthall

• Capital Comedy Festival — Featuring Sommore, Arnez J, Don DC Curry, George Wallace, Tommy Davidson, and George Willborn (3/23)
• The Neighborhood Barbershop Live! (4/14)
• Katt Williams — 11:11 RNS WOrld Tour (4/27)
• The Wild Kratts Live! (4/21)
• Bill Maher — Popular HBO talk show host offers a night of stand-up (7/14)

DC IMPROV

1140 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-296-7008
dcimprov.com

• Jeremy McLellan — Just For Laughs, Charleston Standup Comedy Competition winner (3/13)
• Open Mic Night (3/14)
• Brad Williams (3/15-18)
• Jive Turkey and Friends — Local improv troupes take over our lounge for the night, led by Joe Randazzo and Chris Ulrich (3/15)
• Seaton Smith — Conan, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Comedy Central, Mulaney, HBO (3/16-17)
• Happy Hour Trivia (3/22)
• Jim Norton — Special Event (3/22-24)
• DMV Comedy Showcase — With Matty Litwack, Pearl Rose, Chris Alan, Natalie McGill, and Katherine Jessup (3/23)
• Porkchop Volcano — One of D.C.’s favorite short-form improv troupes (3/24)
• Improv Class Graduation (3/27)
• “Five Minutes to Funny” Stand-Up Class Graduation (3/28)
• Pun DMV Remix — A spin-off of main pun competition, hosted by Dana Fleitman (3/28)
• Rory Scovel w/Danny Rouhier — Netflix, Seeso, Conan, Ground Floor, The House (3/29-31)
• DMV Comedy Showcase — Wendy Wroblewski, Denise Taylor, Katherine Jessup, Theresa Concepcion, and Brittany Carney (3/30)
• Comedy Kumite XIII — Lucky 13th edition of stand-up tournament, with Pearl Rose, Lafayette Wright, Chelsea Shorte, Pat Riley, Tok Moffat, Brittany Carney, Matty Litwack, and Jimmy Meritt (3/31)
• Watch What Crappens — The daily podcast about Bravo TV w/co-hosts Ben Mandelker and Ronnie Karam (4/3-4)
• Comedy at Dupont Underground — Bengt Washburn headlines, with Mia Jackson and Eddie Morrison (4/4, Dupont Underground)
• Taylor Tomlinson — Last Comic Standing, Laughs on Fox, Conan, MTV (4/5-8)
• Comedy School Showcase — Grads of stand-up comedy class return, with host Theresa Concepcion and featuring Adrian Harris, Delonta Sharpe, Danny Fernandez, Sean Kennedy, Christian Evans, Deb Cotter, and Cherie Green Lyons (4/6)
• Murder Mystery Comedy Show – A “Smooth Criminal” musical tribute to the King of Pop from Die Laughing Productions and starring Justin Schegel, Rob Maher, Tommy Sinbazo, Franqi French, and Erik Woodworth (4/11)
• Mick Foley (4/12)
• Jordan Rock w/Reginal Thomas — Younger brother to Chris and Tony (4/13-15)
• Andy Woodhull — The Tonight Show, Conan, Comedy Central, Just for Laughs (4/13-14)
• Nemr — Lebanese-American star returns with his new show, Love Isn’t the Answer (4/19-22)
• Ramon Rivas Broad City, HBO’s Crashing, Viceland (4/20-22)
• Brent Morin — Netflix, Conan, Undateable, How to Be Single, Chelsea Lately (4/26-29)
• D.L. Hughley — An original King of Comedy returns to the Improv for a special event (5/3-6)
• Brandon T. Jackson (5/10-13)
• Ismo — Finnish stand-up (5/15)
• Pun DMV (5/16)
• Margaret Cho — “Fresh Off the Bloat” tour and a return to DC Improv as a special event (5/18-19)
• DC Science Comedy: Dhaya w/Kasha Patel — DC Science Comedy presents Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, a past winner of the Liz Carpenter Political Humor Award, joining elite company, Samantha Bee and Wanda Sykes (5/20)
• Michael Blackson (5/24-27)
• Ari Shaffir — The Wandering Jew Tour (6/1-3)
• Bruce Bruce (6/7-10)
• Andrew Schulz (6/14-17)
• The Time Machine — Great figures from history roast the hell out of each other (6/20)
• Tom Papa (6/21-23)
• Craig Robinson (6/28-7/1)
• Christian Finnegan (7/12-15)
• Erin Jackson — A DC Improv favorite (7/13-14)
• John Witherspoon (7/26-29)
• Sheryl Underwood — Special event (8/3-5)

DC9

1940 9th St. NW
202-483-5000
dcnine.com

• Nerd Nite — Live slideshow presentations on “nerdy topics” once a month for that particular breed of people who like to think and learn while they drink, or while they do anything, really (3/10)
• A People’s Choir DC — A themed bar sing-along (3/29)
• Astronomy on Tap — “Exciting talks about our universe in a bar,” is how organizers describe this Nerd Nite-like event, only with the addition of non-nerdy stuff such as music, games, and prizes to liven things up (4/30)

DRAFTHOUSE COMEDY

1100 13th St. NW
202-750-6411
drafthousecomedy.com

• Anthony DeVito — From Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House Party, The Rad Dudecast and Gotham Comedy Live (3/9-10)
• Three Guys On presents: Saturday Night Comedy Showcase (3/10)
• Jokes That Give Back: A Standup Comedy Show (3/15)
• Broadway hosted by Franqi French (3/15)
• Chris Roach — From CBS’s Kevin Can Wait, Comedy Central and One Life to Live (3/16)
• Dulcé Sloan — From The Daily Show w/ Trevor Noah, Conan, and TruTV (3/23)
• Attack of the Comics Comedy Show (3/23)
• Liza Treyger — From Comedy Central, Adam Devine’s “House Party” and How Many Questions (3/24)
• Speechless: The Ultimate Improvisational Gauntlet (3/29)
• Chad Daniels — From CBS, Comedy Central and Just for Laughs Festival (3/30)
• Couples Therapy: A Comedy Show — Hosted by Rahmein Mostafavi (4/5)
• Iconoclasts: The Ultimate Interactive Stand-Up Comedy Show (4/5)
• Jamie Lee — From Comedy Central, MTV and Weddiculous (4/6)
• The Overachievers presents: Matt Rife — From MTV’s TRL and Wild N Out (4/12)
• The Overachievers Comedy Show — Hosted by Martin Amini from TruTV (4/12)
• Tony Woods from HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, Comedy Central Presents & Funny or Die (4/13)
• Shane Torres — From NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central and Help Wanted (4/20)
• Rachel Feinstein — From Inside Amy Schumer and Last Comic Standing (4/27)
• Ben Gleib from TBS, GSN’s Idiotest, and Comedy Central (5/4)

EAGLEBANK ARENA

George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Va.
703-993-3000
eaglebankarena.com

• WWE Road to WrestleMania March 2018 (3/25)
• Disney on Ice — Follow Your Heart (4/12-15)

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

201 East Capitol St. SE
202-544-7077
folger.edu

• Joad Raymond — “Stronger In: Britain as Center and as Periphery in European News,” a look at Britain’s place vis a vis its neighbors between 1500 and 1700 (4/12)
• 2018 Folger Gala — Sir Derek Jacobi and Richard Clifford, as well as jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut and singer and actress Erica Dorfler, are the featured entertainment at this year’s annual fundraiser (4/16)
• Shakespeare’s Birthday — From Shakespeare performances to stage combat demonstrations to Elizabethan crafts, a full day of festivities to toast the Bard (4/22)
• Julia Reinhard Lupton — University of California, Irvine English professor considers the surprising potential for building more virtuous humans, during Shakespeare’s time and ours, through theater and literary education (4/23)
• Early Music Seminar: Ovid’s Vineyard — Robert Eisenstein, co-artistic director of Folger Consort, shares insights into its next concert (4/25)
• O.B. Hardison Poetry: Carolyn Forché: Poetry of Witness — Award-winning poet and human rights advocate coined the phrase that serves as the title to the anthology she co-edited with Duncan Wu (4/30)
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony — America’s largest peer-juried literary prize, now in its 38th year (5/5)
• Peter Marks and Eric Tucker — An evening of lively theater talk as Washington Post chief theater critic sits down with director of forthcoming production Saint Joan (5/16)
• Kaveh Akbar & Kazim Ali: Silence and Breath — Exploring the relationship between poetry and prayer (5/21)
• Thinking Shakespeare with Barry Edelstein — Artistic Director of The Old Globe leads a workshop on performing Shakespeare based on his critically-acclaimed book (6/1)

FORD’S THEATRE

511 10th St. NW
202-397-7328
fordstheatre.org

• History on Foot Walking Tour: Investigation: Detective McDevitt – Follow a “detective” investigating the Lincoln assassination (3/15-October)
• Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium — The Abraham Lincoln Institute and Ford’s Theatre Society present a free one-day symposium on the life, career and legacy of the 16th president (3/17)
• Treating People Well: The Extraordinary Power of Civility at Work and in Life — Former White House secretaries Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard discuss their new book with the Washington Post‘s Jonathan Capehart (4/8)
• They Knew Lincoln — Editor Kate Masur will discuss, with journalist and The Race Card Project’s Michele Norris, the first-ever reprint of John E. Washington’s book, dating to 1942 and exploring the personal relationships between African-Americans and the 16th President (4/16)

GW LISNER

730 21st St. NW
202-994-6800
lisner.gwu.edu

• Wu Man & the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band — Chinese pipa virtuoso and Kronos Quartet collaborator partners with a popular Chinese group for an evening of traditional music and shadow puppetry (3/16)
• TEDxFoggyBottom 2018: Fear Itself (4/14)
• Yin Yu Tang feat. Kronos Quartet w/Wu Man — The story of Chinese cultural history, tradition, and transition as told in a multi-genre way, with Grammy-winners Kronos and pipa virtuoso Wu Man performing works by various composers and augmented by live staging and video elements from acclaimed directed Chen Shi-Zheng (4/19)
• Max Amini — A hometown show for actor and comedian (5/5)

HILLWOOD MUSEUM & GARDENS

202-686-8500
hillwoodmuseum.org

• Gardener’s Focus: An Orchid-Filled Greenhouse — Drew Asbury leads tours through Hillwood’s working greenhouse on most days in March, otherwise known as Orchid Month
• Fabergé Egg Family Festival — A two-day festival in which guests can take part in a traditional Russian egg-rolling game, decorate your own Fabergé-inspired egg, see performances from the Samovar Russian Folk Music Ensemble and Kalinka Dance Ensemble, and hear stories of Russian Easter traditions in a fun family play produced by Happenstance Theater (3/24-25)
• French Festival — Happenstance Theater, New York Baroque Dance, and baroque guitarist Kevin Shannon lead a reenactment of the festivities of the French court as part of Hillwood’s fete of France’s national holiday (7/14)
• Tanabata — The Japanese Star Festival celebrates the legend of Orihime, the weaver princess, and Hikoboshi, the herder, lovers separated by the Milky Way who are allowed to meet just once a year on one day during the summer months (7/28)

JAMMIN JAVA

227 Maple Ave. E.
Vienna, Va.
703-255-3747
jamminjava.com

• Sing For Your Life! A Murder Mystery — “Another hilarious, unexpected, interactive, live, comedy whodunnit!” (3/16)
• The Later Late Show — A comedy showcase featuring Andy Kline, Matt Ruby, Josh Kuderna, Nate Johnson, Joe Gilpin, Keith Corey, and Sarah Roche (3/17)

KENNEDY CENTER

2700 F St. NW
202-467-4600
kennedy-center.org

• Mason Bates’s Mercury Soul — New music will meet electronica, projected visuals, and immersive stagecraft in this visceral “classical rave” featuring new music by some of today’s most talked-about composers (3/15, 9:30 Club)
• Koyaanisqatsi with the Philip Glass Ensemble, Washington Chorus — Legendary American composer’s iconic multimedia collaboration with experimental filmmaker Godfrey Reggio receives its Kennedy Center premiere ((3/16, Concert Hall)
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me — The Atlantic writer has partnered with director Kamilah Forbes for a live performance event weaving together excerpted selections, interactive visual storytelling, and an original score by Jason Moran (4/7, Eisenhower)
• Ballet 360° with Alexandra Tomalonis: Robbins, Bernstein, and New York City Ballet — Dance critic discusses Jerome Robbins’s ballets set to Bernstein’s music, including Fancy Free and West Side Story (4/7, Terrace Gallery)
• David Sedaris (4/9, Concert Hall)
• Tracy Morgan (4/20, Concert Hall)
• Artes de Cuba Film Screenings: Havana Film Festival 40-Year Retrospective — Two days of screenings highlighting the festival’s history in cinema, with the first group of three films considered “classics of Cuban cinema”: Memorias del Subdesarrollo, Retrato de Teresa, and Lucía (4/12, Family Theater); and the last group festival awardees: Fresa y Chocolate, Suite Habana, and Conducta (4/13, Family)
• Film Screening: Rock Rubber 45s — The D.C. premiere of Bobbito Garcia’s cinematic odyssey exploring the connectivity and community aspects of basketball, sneakers, and music (6/22, Terrace Theater)

KRAMERBOOKS

1517 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-387-1400
kramers.com

• Ted Scheinman: Camp Austen — The son of a devoted Jane Austen scholar offers a raucous tour of childhood summers spent in a world of Mr. Darcy imitations, tailored gowns, and tipsy ballroom dancing (3/14)
• Uzodinma Iweala: Speak No Evil — Long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation (3/18)
• Book Launch: Adrienne Benson: The Brightest Sun — An affecting story set in Sub-Saharan Africa and following three women in their search for home and family (3/20)
• Hannah Jewell: She Caused a Riot — An unconventional history book giving readers powerful examples of a diverse group of women from history with the intent of empowering a courageous new movement of women to do the same (3/22)
• Reid Wilson: Epidemic — A look at the world’s first urban Ebola outbreak, in West Africa in 2013, and how it quickly overwhelmed the global health system and threatened to kill millions (3/27)
• Cass Sunstein: Can It Happen Here? — Harvard Professor queried a number of the nation’s leading thinkers for a thought-provoking collection of essays prompted by the rise of Trump to assess the state and security of American democracy (3/29)
• Meredith Goldstein: Can’t Help Myself, in Conversation with Lisa Bonos — In her column, Boston Globe advice columnist has it all figured out, but in real life, as a single woman, she is a lot less sure (4/4)
• Kirstin Chen: Bury What We Cannot Take, in conversation with Nicole Chung — A captivating and emotional novel that follows one family’s reckoning with how the events of one day will change their lives forever, set against the backdrop of early Maoist China (4/9)
• Steve Levingston: Kennedy and King — The story of two brilliant leaders who injected new meaning into the veins of American society and created a moral imperative that changed the U.S. and the world (4/19)
• Scott Tong: A Village with My Name — From a veteran Marketplace correspondent comes a work that is as much a family history as it is a story of a superpower’s globalization (4/19)
• Thomas Ricks: Churchill & Orwell — A dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, two icons who preserved democracy from the threats of authoritarianism (5/14)
• Maxim Loskutoff: Come West and See — Searing fiction debut reimagines the American West through linked stories describing a violent rural separatist movement (5/16)

LA TI DO DC

Bistro Bistro
1727 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-328-1640
latidoproductions.com

• Golden Age and The Classics — A focus on showtunes that were bona fide pop hits during Broadway’s heyday, performed by guest vocalists and a four-piece band (3/12)
• New Musical Theater Night — A focus on songs strictly from of-the-moment musicals, all post-2010 (4/16)
• Happenings Happy Hour (6/21, Sidney Harman Hall)
• Pop Night — Annual night of pop songs by divas and boy/girl bands (5/8)
• Pride Celebration — Songs that make you feel proud — pretty, witty, and gay (6/11)
• Spoof-tacular — When you know the notes to sing, you can stray and sing most anything, have fun and be punny (7/16)

LIGHT CITY

International Light, Music and Innovation Festival
Baltimore, Md.
410-752-8632
lightcity.org

• A third year of this festival in downtown Baltimore, highlighted by the first-weekend kickoff Neighborhood Lights program through which 14 communities, guided by light artists, created their own illuminated piece (4/6-8) and the BGE Light Art Walk between Inner Harbor and Harbor East, where 21 large-scale light art installations create an illuminated playground for three weekends (4/6-21)

LINCOLN THEATRE

1215 U St. NW
202-328-6000
thelincolndc.com

• Bianca Del Rio — Blame It On Bianca (3/15)
• PostSecret: The Show (3/24)
• Rob Bell w/Peter Rollins — The Holy Shift Tour (3/27)
• What Your Man Won’t Do — Lovail Long & Vernon Williams presents (3/31)
• JACKSEPTICEYE — “How Did We Get Here” with Irish producer, game commentator, and internet personality (4/3)
• Stuff You Should Know Live (4/3)
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Live starring Rachel Bloom (4/6)
• The West Wing Weekly (Live) (4/16)
• Radiotopia Live (5/9)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First St. SE
202-707-8000
loc.gov/concerts

• Professor Horn’s Punch & Judy Show (3/21, Whittall Pavilion)
• Film Screening: Bernstein Conducts Mahler and Liszt (5/12, Mary Pickford Theater)
• Film Screening: On The Waterfront — Bernstein wrote the score to Elia Kazan’s eight-time Oscar-winning film (5/17, Pickford)
• Leonard Bernstein’s America: Celebrating the Collection — A special, day-long program when patrons are encouraged to delve into the Library’s extensive collection of Bernstein treasures and memorabilia — over 400,000 items in all — with Music Division curators and others on hand to guide and answer questions (5/19, Madison Building)

LOGAN FRINGE ARTS SPACE

Trinidad Theatre
1358 Florida Ave. NE.
202-733-6321
capitalfringe.org

• Make St. Patrick’s Day Great Again, Again — 2nd Annual St. Patrick’s Day Variety Show from Shannon Dunne & Friends (3/10-11)
• Clown Cabaret — Workshop teaching basic aspects to various forms of clowning, from classic to circus, commedia to slapstick (4/9)
• Clown Cabaret — The best clowns in D.C. this side of Capitol Hill (6/11)
• 13th Annual Capital Fringe Festival — Due to construction on the Logan Fringe space, the 2018 festival will relocate to Southwest to perform at Arena Stage, Blind Whino, and Westminster Church, in addition to erecting two 80-seat performance tents on 4th Street SW (7/7-29)

MGM NATIONAL HARBOR

The Theater
7100 Harborview Ave.
Oxon Hill, Md.
844-346-4664
mgmnationalharbor.com

• Maks & Val & Peta Live on Tour — The stars of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, and Peta Murgatroyd (4/15)
• George Lopez (5/18)
• Nick Swardson — Too Many Smells Tour (5/20)
• Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth Round 2 (6/21)
• David Blaine Live (6/24)
• Bill Burr (8/24)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE!

Grosvenor Auditorium
17th and M Streets NW
202-857-7700
events.nationalgeographic.com

• NatGeo Nights: From The Front Lines — Monthly happy hour with stories from NatGeo Explorers, this time Alex Braczkowski, Juliana Machade Ferreira, and Topher White (3/15, Museum)
• Wild Florida: Hidden in Plain Sight — Explorer Carlton Ward Jr. (3/20)
• Birds of the Photo Ark — Joel Sartore discusses the Photo Ark project, a visual archive of biodiversity empowering people to save wildlife and their habitat (3/27)
• Chasing Cherry Blossoms — NatGeo Senior Photo Archivist Sara Manco will share the trailblazing work of of photojournalist Eliza Scidmore, the magazine’s first official female writer/photographer, who also led the effort to bring the now-iconic cherry trees from Japan to D.C. (3/29)
• Race: What Defines Us? — Live podcast recording with Pod Save the People (4/4)
• Extreme Ocean: Exploring the Deep (4/10)
• You’re the Expert: Live Recording — Chris Duffy of popular podcast leads a game in which three comedians try to guess what a NatGeo Explorer does all day, with Negin Farsad (4/14)
• 1,000 Words — A discussion about the true power of photography with leading adventure photographer Cory Richards and NatGeo Senior Editor Peter Gwin (4/18)
• Unexpected Origins — Featuring stories from Explorers Genevieve von Petzinger, Marina Elliott, Matthew Cicanese, and Ryan Carney (4/19, Museum)
• Sacred Geography: Glimpses of the Divine — Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis shares stories from his study of indigenous cultures (4/24)
• Shrinking Kingdoms: Leopards & Jaguars (5/1)
• Conversation: Muslims in America (5/2)
• Conservation: Exploring Genius (5/3)
• The Science of Genius — David Moinina Sengeh, Jedidah Isler, and Steve Ramirez (5/17, Museum)
• Robert Ballard: The Untold Story of the Titanic — Robert Ballard, the NatGeo Explorer-at-Large who discovered the Titanic, discusses the unfolding mystery at the center of the tale, akin to something ripped from the pages of a Cold War thriller, and further explored in new exhibition (5/30)
• Saving Seabirds (6/5)

POLITICS AND PROSE

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW.
202-364-1919
politics-prose.com

• Matthew Kroenig — The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters, discussed in conversation with Francis J. Gavin (3/10)
• Daniel Borzutsky — Lake Michigan & Ilan Stavans is new collection of poems focused on the history of police violence against the non-white population of Chicago (3/10)
• Adam Winkler — We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights, in conversation with Jess Bravin (3/11)
• Yascha Mounk — The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It, in conversation with E.J. Dionne (3/11)
• Aminatta Forna — Happiness, in conversation with Sharon Gelman (3/11)
• Sebastian Abbot — The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars (3/12)
• Roseann Lake — Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World’s Next Superpower (3/12, Politics & Prose at the Wharf)
• Joseph A. Califano, Jr. — Our Damaged Democracy: We the People Must Act (3/13)
• Martin Amis — The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1994-2017 (3/14, Sidwell Friends Meeting House)
• Mary Frances Berry — History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times (3/14)
• Ryan Holiday — Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue (3/16)
• Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington — The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South (3/17)
• Michele Lent Hirsch — Invisible: How Young Women with Serious Health Issues Navigate Work, Relationships, and the Pressure to Seem Just Fine (3/18)
• Luis Alberto Urrea — The House of Broken Angels (3/18)
• Carolee Belkin Walker — Getting My Bounce Back: How I Got Fit, Healthier, and Happier (and You Can, Too) (3/19, Wharf)
• Elaine Weiss — The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (3/19)
• Sarah McBride — Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality, a memoir and call to arms from HRC Press Secretary who will engage in conversation with Congressman Joe Kennedy (3/20)
• Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik — Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do about It (3/21)
• William A. Galston — Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy (3/21, Wharf)
• Jonathan Weisman — (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump (3/22)
• Mackenzie Lee — Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World (3/22, Wharf)
• Mark Eisner — Neruda: The Poet’s Calling, in conversation with Gwen Kirkpatrick (3/24)
• Bill Press — From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire (3/25)
• Nell Scovell — Just the Funny Parts…and a Few Hard Truths about Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club, in conversation with Alexandra Petri (3/25)
• Bonnie J. Morris — The Feminist Revolution: The Struggle for Women’s Liberation (3/26)
• Michael Isikoff and David Corn — “As in their bestselling Hubris, which uncovered the truth of the Iraq War, Isikoff and Corn expose what amounts to a cyber Watergat” in Russian Roulette (3/27, GW Jack Morton Auditorium)
• Leonard Mlodinow — Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change, in conversation with Eliza Barclay (3/27)
• Alan Hollinghurst — The Sparsholt Affair focuses on a British upper-crust family from the 1940s to the present, chronicling, among other things, the transition from closeted gay life to social acceptance of homosexuality after the passage of the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act (3/28)
• Sarah B. Snyder — From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (3/28, Wharf)
• Mitch Landrieu —In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History (3/29)
• Ross Douthat — To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (3/31)
• Annelise Orleck — “We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now”: The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages (3/31)
• Laurie J. Cameron — The Mindful Day: Practical Ways to Find Focus, Calm, and Joy from Morning to Evening (3/31)
• Leslie Jamison — The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (4/4)
• Charles Frazier — Varina (4/5)
• Timothy Snyder — The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (4/7)
• Joseph A. Esposito — Dinner in Camelot: The Night America’s Greatest Scientists, Writers, and Scholars Partied at the Kennedy White House (4/8)
• Alan S. Blinder — Advice and Dissent: Why America Suffers When Economics and Politics Collide (4/8)
• Jennifer Segal — Once Upon a Chef, the Cookbook: 100 Tested, Perfected, and Family-Approved Recipes (4/8)
• Diana Butler Bass — Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks (4/9, Wharf)
• Barbara Ehrenreich — Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer (4/11, Wharf)
• Todd S. Purdum — Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution (4/11)
• William T. Vollmann — No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (4/13)
• Eileen McNamara — Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World (4/14)
• Bruce M. Beehler — North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring (4/14)
• Daniel Kurtz-Phelan — The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War, 1945-1947, in conversation with Evan Thomas (4/15)
• Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms — New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World–And How to Make It Work for You (4/15)
• Sean Penn — Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff (4/15)
• Barbara K. Lipska — The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery (4/16)
• PublicAffairs — 20 Years of Publishing Good Books About Things That Matter (4/17)
• Wendy Mogel — Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say It, and When to Listen (4/18)
• Sally Kohn — The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity, in conversation with Candy Crowley (4/18, GW Morton)
• Robert Kuttner — Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? (4/20)
• Lucy Cooke — The Truth about Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife (4/21)
• Eric Jerome Dickey — Bad Men and Wicked Women (4/21)
• Tim Wendel — Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors, and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia, in conversation with Mary Kay Zuravleff (4/22)
• Lawrence Wright — God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State (4/23, Wharf)
• Edward Tenner — The Efficiency Paradox: What Big Data Can’t Do (4/23)
• Stacey Abrams — Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change (4/25)
• Alan Lightman — Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (4/29)
• Steve Israel — Big Guns (4/30)
• Alan Stern and David Grinspoon — Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto (5/1)
• Nomi Prins — Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World (5/2)
• Jake Tapper — The Hellfire Club (5/2, GW Morton)
• Amy Chozick — Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling (5/3)
• William I. Hitchcock — The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (5/5)
• Nadine Strossen — Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (5/5)
• Peter Stark — Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father (5/6)
• Scott D. Seligman — The Third Degree: The Triple Murder That Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice (5/6)
• Patricia O’Toole — The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made (5/9)
• James and Deborah Fallows — Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America (5/9, Wharf)
• Dambisa Moyo —Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth–And How to Fix It (5/12)
• Christian Davenport — The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (5/12)
• Rick Bragg — The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table (5/14)
• Heather Gautney — Crashing the Party: From the Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement, in conversation with Adolph Reed, Jr. and Larry Cohen (5/15, Wharf)
• Stacy McAnulty — The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl (5/16)
• Bill Schneider — Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable (5/17, Wharf)
• Sarah Kendzior — The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America (5/18)
• Michael Curtis — Classical Architecture and Monuments of Washington, D.C. & Kim Prothro Williams: Lost Farms and Estates of Washington, D.C. (5/19)
• Gary Krist — The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles (5/19)
• Mark Bittman — How to Grill Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Flame-Cooked Food (5/20)
• Jonathan Rauch — The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 (5/20)
• Priya Parker — The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (5/22)
• Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz — To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment (5/23, Wharf)
• Franchesca Ramsey — Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist (5/23)
• Charlie LeDuff — Sh*tshow!: The Country’s Collapsing…and the Ratings Are Great (5/24)
• Edward Lee — Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine — In conversation with Jane Black (5/30, Wharf)
• Thomas B. Reston — Soul of a Democrat: The Seven Core Ideals That Made Our Party Great–And How They Can Do So Again (5/30)
• Steven Brill — Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall–And Those Fighting to Reverse It (6/1)
• Scott W. Stern — The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison “Promiscuous” Women (6/2)
• John Ferling — Apostles of Revolution: Jefferson, Paine, Monroe, and the Struggle Against the Old Order in America and Europe (6/2)

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE

600 I St. NW
202-408-3100
sixthandi.org

• Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner: Modern Loss — In conversation with Marisa Lee about book examining how to navigate grief and resilience in the age of social media (3/28)
• Mari Andrew: Am I There Yet? (3/29)
• Mark Penn: Microtrends Squared — Identifying 50 new trends that will reshape the future of business (4/4)
• Cecile Richards: Make Trouble (4/5, Sixth and I)
• Sloane Crosley: Look Alive Out There (4/10)
• Madeleine Albright: Fascism: A Warning (4/16)
• Alex Wagner: Futureface (4/18)
• Upright Citizens Brigade Company — A showcase of some of the nation’s best improv (4/21)
• Sam Kass: Eat a Little Better — Former chef to the Obamas and White House food policy advisor shares recipes and his philosophy for how to eat more healthfully and sustainably (4/24)
• Michael Barbaro — Host of the popular New York Times podcast The Daily, in a TimesTalk D.C. conversation (4/26)
• Ronan Farrow: War on Peace — In conversation with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly (5/3)
• Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind — Investigating psychedelic drugs and what they reveal about the human mind, self, and our connection to the natural world and each other (5/17)
• The Flop House — A comedy podcast in which three friends watch a bad movie and discuss it (5/26)
• Middleditch and Schwartz — Two-person long-form improv from actors Thomas and Ben known from Silicon Valley and Parks and Recreation, respectively (6/27)

STORY DISTRICT

3329 Georgia Ave. NW
202-630-9828
storydistrict.org

• Storytelling Series: Beauty & the Beast — Stories about Mismatched Partnerships, Odd Couples, or Unlikely Alliances (3/13, Town)
• Coaching: Boot Camp — A one-day crash course in contemporary autobiographical storytelling (3/17)
• Pinot Memoir — Inaugural Fundraising Gala (3/26, Proof)
• Storytelling 101 — Learn to tell your own true tales in five weeks w/final performance (3/9-5/3)
• Storytelling: Seriously??? — Stories about Things You CanNOT Believe Happened (4/10, Town)
• Storytelling: Saving Face — Stories about the Lengths You’ll Go to Preserve Your Image or Status (5/8, Town)
• Storytelling: Go the F*ck to Sleep — Stories about Parenting and Parents (6/12, Town)
• Storytelling: Up Shit Creek — Stories about Being in a Situation or Getting into Trouble (7/10, Town)

STRATHMORE

5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, Md.
301-581-5100
strathmore.org

• Historical Home Tour — A guided tour illuminating the history, architecture and personal stories of Strathmore’s original venue (3/15, 4/19, 5/17, 6/21, Mansion)
• Niyaz: The Fourth Light Project — Iranian folk songs and medieval Sufi poetry, with a focus on the first female Sufi mystic and poet Rabia Al Basri, as performed by vocalist Azam Ali and multi-instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian (3/16, Music Center)
• Rob Lowe — “Stories I Only Tell My Friends: LIVE!” (5/11, Music Center)

UNION STAGE

740 Water St. SW.
877-987-6487
Unionstage.com

• Hilarity! A Comedy Show — Featuring Dylan Meyer, Matt Brown, TJ Ferguson, Wendy Wroblewski, and Kevin Skiffington (3/11)
• Alsin Beer Dinner w/Live Music by Two Ton Twig (3/14)
• The No Sleep Podcast (3/16, Miracle Theatre)
• Speed Rack Season 7: Mid-Atlantic Regional — Charity Female Bartending Competition, raising money for breast cancer research and education (3/19)
• Write Bloody Poetry Live — Sarah Kay, Derrick Brown, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, and Anis Mojgani (4/4)
• Super Art Fight (5/5)

WARNER THEATRE

513 13th St. NW
202-397-SEAT
warnertheatre.com

• Haters Roast — Shade on stage from RuPaul’s Drag Race queens, this time around with Jinkx Monsoon, Trixie Mattel, Latrice Royale, Trinity Taylor, Thorgy Thor, William and AJA, and hosted as ever by Ginger Minj (3/22)
• Dita Von Teese and the Copper Coupe Burlesque — Absolut Elyx presents “The Art of the Teese” (5/3)
• Lewis Black — Joke’s On Us Tour from the hilariously irascible comic raised in Silver Spring (5/17-19)

WOLF TRAP

1645 Trap Road
Vienna, Va.
877-WOLFTRAP
wolftrap.org

• Emerson String Quartet, David Strathairn, Sean Astin: Shostakovich and The Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy — Dmitri Shostakovich dreamed of creating an opera based on Chekhov’s mystical tale, The Black Monk, and Philip Setzer and James Glossman have approximated that in a bold intersection of chamber music and theater, performed by Setzer’s famed quartet and famous actors from Hollywood and beyond (3/11, The Barns)
• Live From Here with Chris Thile — The successor to Prairie Home Companion carries on the tradition of taping an episode over Memorial Day (5/26, Filene Center)
• Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! — A live recording of NPR’s popular, hilarious news quiz show (7/19, Filene)
• Bernstein at 100: A Celebration — New York City Ballet star Misty Copeland, Tony-nominated performer Tony Yazbeck (Bernstein’s On The Town), legendary jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, the NSO led by Michael Barrett, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington perform arguably the strongest, multi-genre tribute to the late, great icon in what would have been his centenary year (7/27, Filene)