Monday, July 6
Get ready to rock out in DC’s Tenleytown: Local bands Go Home Robot, Sea Monsters, and Power Pirate take the stage in tonight’s installment of the Fort Reno concert series. 7:30 PM.

Tuesday, July 7
Volunteers from the Annapolis Quilt Guild demonstrate quilting, piecing, and other quilt-making techniques and explain related tools from the textile collection of the National Museum of American History. Fashion design it ain’t, but anyone interested in the mechanics of cloth-based construction should consider checking it out. 11 AM to 1 PM.

Wednesday, July 8
The importance of cursive in the professional world may have been the biggest sham of your elementary-school years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate a little pretty handwriting now and then. Round up those you know ages 8 to 14 and join them for a free calligraphy lesson with Omani scriptor Saleh Shukairi at the Sackler Gallery’s ImaginAsia classroom. Activity books will be passed out after the demonstration for some hands-on practice in the art of letter-writing and traditional Islamic decoration. 2 PM.

Monday, June 1
• Luis Alberto Urrea will read and discuss his latest novel, Into the Beautiful North, at Politics and Prose. The book tells of a small-town girl whose life suddenly finds purpose after watching the movie The Magnificent Seven. 7 PM.

• Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra, a steel-drum group composed of students from the Saturday Academy in Maryland, performs at the Kennedy Center’s free Millennium Stage. 6 PM.

Tuesday, June 2
• The Washington Psychotronic Film Society screens Evil Brain From Outer Space at the Warehouse. The film, believe it or not, is about a pajama-wearing superhero fighting space monsters in order to save our planet. The screening is free, but a $2 donation is encouraged. 8 PM.

• Jazz musician Marcus Johnson will perform songs from his most recent album, Poetically Justified, at the 18th and L streets location of Borders in downtown DC. He’ll autograph copies of his album following the performance. 12:30 PM.

Tuesday, May 19
In Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret, Steve Luxenberg, an editor at the Washington Post, uncovers his mother’s hidden past and an aunt he never knew existed. Luxenberg will discuss his book with New York Times reporter Scott Shane at the Borders at 18th and L streets, Northwest, at 6:30.

Wednesday, May 20
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius will read from and his discuss his newest thriller, The Increment, at Politics and Prose at 7. The novel centers around the Iranian nuclear threat and how a CIA agent must betray his country and turn to a secret British spy team called the Increment to save the day.

Thursday, May 21
The Smithsonian American Art Museum screens The Grapes of Wrath in its McEvoy Auditorium at 6. John Ford’s adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel follows the Joad family, who attempt to leave behind the Great Depression by heading west to California.

Tuesday, May 12
Richard N. Haass, director of policy planning in the State Department under Colin Powell, reflects on the differences between the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars in War of Neccessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars. Haas will read from and discuss his book at Politics & Prose at 7.

Wednesday, May 13
Author Vincent Bzdek brings The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled to the L Street location of Borders at 12:30. Bzdek argues that each Kennedy brother’s accomplishments can been seen as a means of fulfilling the interrupted promise of the brother before him. The author will read from the book and discuss who now carries the family’s torch.

Monday, May 4
Author Nadje Al-Ali will discuss her book, What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq, at the 14th and V streets, Northwest, location of Busboys and Poets at 6:30. Al-Ali’s book is based on interviews with Iraqi women’s-rights activists, international policymakers, and NGO workers. It’s the first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion.

Tuesday, May 5
Good Morning America commentator Lee Woodruff, coauthor of In an Instant, about her husband Bob Woodruff’s roadside-bomb injury in Iraq while on assignment for ABC News, returns with the more lighthearted Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress. The book humorously details the day-to-day struggle of raising a family and growing older. She’ll be at Politics and Prose at 7.

Wednesday, May 6
Moroccan-American novelist and essayist Laila Lalami brings her new book, Secret Son, to the L Street, Northwest, location of Borders at 6:30. Lalami’s book centers around a young man from a Casablanca slum who discovers that his dead father is actually a living and wealthy businessman.

Monday, April 27
Former George Washington University president Stephen Trachtenberg brings his memoir, Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education, to Reiter’s Books at 6:30. Trachtenberg draws on his 30 years of experience to candidly explore the challenges of running a university.

Tuesday, April 28
Stop by the National Air and Space Museum’s Lockheed Martin Imax Theater for a free screening of Dogfights: Hell Over Hanoi at 7. Following the film, retired Air Force Brigadier General Dan Cherry will talk about his recent experience meeting Nguyen Hong My, the Vietnamese aviator he shot down in 1972.

Wednesday, April 29
The Library of Congress screens the world premier of Ed Thigpen: Master of Time, Rhythm, and Taste in its Mary Pickford Theater at 7. Thigpen, a jazz drummer best known for his tenures with Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald, played on more than 900 albums with almost every great jazz musician of the 20th century.