MONDAY, JUNE 6
SCIENCE: It’s satisfying to have someone who’s eons smarter than you about a particular subject explain it all out in everyday terms (Neil Degrasse Tyson, anyone?). At the Smithsonian’s “Behind the Science with Joe Palca: Insights from Scientific Innovators,” the NPR science correspondent will discuss tribology, which is the study of friction and interacting surfaces. He’ll be in conversation with Irwin Singer, a retired physicist and expert on the subject. $30, 6:45 PM.
YOGA: Attend one of BicycleSPACE’s Yoga Mondays at their Adams Morgan and K Street locations, with certified instructors leading hour-long, pay-what-you can sessions with proceeds benefitting a DC-area nonprofit or advocacy group. Pay What You Can, 7:15 PM.
MUSIC: It makes sense that Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield named her indie-pop project after a creek near her childhood home in Alabama. Crutchfield has a penchant for writing songs about the confusing minutiae of young adulthood, and she has stayed true to that wistfulness even as she has graduated from lo-fi solo recordings to the full-band sound on the acclaimed Ivy Tripp, her latest record. See the band at the Black Cat. 7:30 PM, $15.
TUESDAY, JUNE 7
BOOKS: Before getting into fiction writing Tracy Barone had a life in Hollywood as an executive producer on films such as Wild Wild West, My Fellow Americans and Money Train. Her debut novel Happy Family brings the drama too, telling the story of an independent woman attempting to rekindle a relationship with the family that raised her. Barone will be at Kramerbooks to read and discuss her work on Tuesday. Free, 6:30 PM.
MUSIC AND FILM: Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center to get through this thing called life without Prince. The forever-loved musician would have turned 58 today, and to commemorate his birthday the theatre is hosting a Prince DJ set by DJ Lance Reynolds followed by a screening Purple Rain and a “surprise BONUS film.” $13, 7 PM.
FILM: DC Music Salon, a film-and-book series about local music, wraps up its sixth season at the Watha T. Daniel Public Library in Shaw with a preview of the documentary Feast Your Ears: The Story of WHFS 102.3 about the eclectic former Bethesda FM station that was one of the last to fend off the corporate acquisitions and consolidations that virtually erased anarchic, progressive radio from the airwaves. Director Jay Schlossberg and others will be on hand to discuss HFS’s hey-day from the ’60s to the ’80s. Free, 7 PM.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8
THEATER: Source Festival returns to 14th Street with brand-new works that focus on collaboration among disciplines. Three themes—Dreams & Discord, Heroes & Home, and Secrets & Sound—set the tone for the three full-length and 18 ten-minute plays. They’re also the inspiration for Source’s “artistic blind dates,” experimental pieces crafted by artists from different genres that work as companions to the full-length plays. $10-$32.
MUSIC: Electro pop duo Purity Ring sold out their first night at the 9:30 Club, but the chillwave gods have smiled upon us by offering a second night of the show with opener Lydia Ainsworth. $30, 7 PM
THEATER: District Merchants, a completely unique adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, runs at the Folger Theatre until July 3. This version takes place in 1870s reconstruction era Washington, DC focusing on the area’s black and Jewish populations. $25-$55, 7:30 PM.
