THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24
MUSIC Get swinging on Thanksgiving with the Kennedy Center’s free performance and dance class on the Millennium Stage. Local dance instructors Gottaswing host a beginner swing lesson starting at 6 PM, and music and dancing will continue to 9 PM, including Los Angeles “little-big band” Phat Cat Swinger and 1940s MGM Lindy dance star Jean Veloz. Free, 6 PM.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25
FILM The International Festival of Films on Art, hosted in Montreal each March, is celebrating its 35th year. The National Gallery of Art is hosting two events in its East Building Auditorium to show several films from the most recent festival—on the docket for Friday’s session are four films (so budget about three and a half hours), including Joachim Olender’s The Collection That Did Not Exist, a film about the Museum of Modern Art’s acquisition of over 200 works of art from Belgian collector Herman Daled. On Sunday, the museum will show a second set of films. Free, noon.
DRINK Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout is a beer as black as the Friday after Thanksgiving and the first beer to be aged in a Bourbon barrel. For the fourth year in a row, Churchkey will unveil this year’s version of the Bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout as well as several variants—including bottle pours of 2012’s BCBS and the 2015 Bourbon County Regal Rye, a version of the stout aged with blackberries and cherries. 4 PM.
THEATER It’s easy to see why Once won eight Tony Awards in 2012, including Best Musical: the score features actors playing their own instruments onstage and highlights charming music written by the Frames’ Glen Hansard through the character of a Dublin singer-songwriter. The musical is open Friday through Sunday at the National Theatre. $58 to $98, 8 PM.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26
SHOPPING Last week, DC Brau announced plans to expand its space and triple its capacity next year. But even as DC’s oldest running brewery expands, it continues to promote fellow local businesses by hosting its fourth annual Made in DC Holiday Marketplace at the brewery. Staying true to the spirit of Small Business Saturday, there will be over two dozen local craftspeople selling their wares, as well as tunes from Mateo Monk Music and raffles from Whole Foods. Vendors will sell everything from food and beverage (Jerkface Jerky, Junius Cold Brew Coffee, and Brau’s neighboring chocolatiers Harper Macaw) to wearables (De Nada’s hats and scarves plus John Wye’s t-shirts, leather belts, and wallets) to gifts (Yinibini Baby, Kuzeh Pottery, and Pure Pallette Scents’ candles and diffusers). Free, 1 PM – 6 PM.
BOOKS Local gelato makers Dolcezza is celebrating its partnership with New York biscuit and spice shop La Boîte with free samples of their new flavor Afghan Chai and a signing of chef/spice-grinder Lior Lev Sercarz’s new book The Spice Companion. This all takes place at their NoMa Factory location. Free, 2 PM – 5 PM.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27
FILM The first Parent Trap film starred Hayley Mills as twins back in 1961, long before Lindsay Lohan re-created the role in 1998. (Of course, the Mills version wasn’t the first film based on the 1949 German novel Das doppelte Lottchen, also known as Lottie and Lisa, but that’s the subject of another column). AFI Silver Theatre is showing the ’61 film twice this weekend, once on Friday and once on Sunday. $10, 1:10 PM.
MUSIC The Kennedy Center has teamed up with DC internet radio station, blogger, and DJ Hometown Sounds to highlight a DC musician or band once a month on the Millennium Stage. This month’s performance features the chamber-folk group the Cowards Choir, fronted by songwriter Andy Zipf. The show starts promptly at 6 PM, which will allow plenty of time to hop over to the Howard Theatre to catch former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach later that night. Free, 6 PM / $25 to $50, 8 PM.
