Things to Do

Modern Art, Yoga, and Drive-in Movies: Things to Do in DC, March 4-7

Plus: How do you celebrate milestones virtually?

Illustration by Hannah Good.

Hello hello!

We’ve got new exhibits, a filmmaker festival, and a food talk with Julia Turshen and Antoni Porowski.

Get in the sin wagon for a drive-in movie.

Here’s what you should check out this weekend:

Film fest: Explore the virtual Women Filmmakers Festival from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. See works from Cecilia Vicuña, who looks at indigenous cultural traditions honoring the environment in Chile; Coco Fusco, a Cuban filmmaker who examines the relationship between art and Black activism; and Mariam Ghani, whose art has focused on the centennial of the 1918 pandemic. Catch curator-artist talks with Fusco (March 10 at 5:30 PM) and Ghani (March 17 at 5:30 PM) as well. Through March 21; Free, learn more here.

Hungry hearts: Home cooking pro Julia Turshen will chat about her new cookbook, Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food, with Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski in a virtual event from Sixth & I. Can you believe??? Thursday 3/4 at 7 PM; $10-$38 (with signed book included); buy tickets here.

Happy birthday: The Phillips Collection is toasting to its 100-year anniversary with a major new exhibit, Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century. The museum is reopening its doors on March 6 and offering timed entry passes. Walk through more than 200 pieces of contemporary art from the 1800s to present day from the Phillips’ vast collection. Saturday 3/6 through September 12; $16, find out more here.

Diaspora dialogues: The new virtual symposium Making African America explores how immigration has influenced Black identities in the U.S. From the National Museum of African American History & Culture and the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Migration Studies, the month-long event features conversations from academics, artists, activists, journalists, and other intellectuals including the new African American museum head Kevin Young (March 5) and local Afro-Dominican poet/author Elizabeth Acevedo (March 20). Fridays and Saturdays starting Friday 3/5 at 3:30 PM; Free (registration required), find out more here.

Picturing the city: In the DC Public Library’s online talk, “A Visual Perspective of DC Through the Lens of Black Women Photographers,” hear Jeanine Cummins, Sandy Adams, and Lisa Fanning discuss their work capturing the District in their own ways. Thursday 3/4 at 7 PM; Free, watch it on YouTube here.

Stretch out: Take an online yoga class from Flow Yoga Center instructors who will guide you from the National Cathedral. See the cathedral’s current origami exhibit, “Les Colombes (The Doves),” virtually and, in the later session, practice poses with a live harp playing in the background. Monday 3/8 at 8 AM and 12:15 PM; $10, buy tickets here.

Drive-ins are back: The Alexandria Drive-In Theatre is kicking off its season this weekend. Catch Jurassic Park, Hidden Figures, and other films from the comfort of your car. Find out more here.

Mask up, museums are opening: The Phillips Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Glenstone, and Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Garden are all reopening this week.

Vibe check: 

Cheers on Zoom doesn’t feel the same.
It’s been a year since the pandemic shut down the city, a weird and sad anniversary that none of us really wanted to see. Next month, I’ll be ringing in my second birthday from the stay-at-home era, and I’m so tired of not seeing my friends but I know we’re nearing the finish line this year with vaccines hopefully coming through. We have so much to look forward to! This past weekend I toasted my seven-year anniversary with my girlfriend through Zoom. It’s been over a year since we’ve seen each other in person because we’ve remained strict with Covid safety protocols, which has been really, really difficult. It was tough to figure out how we’d make this milestone feel a little more special than our daily FaceTime calls, but we landed on sharing collections of memories and fun moments from our past through ugly selfies, silly college videos, sweet texts, and more. Hilariously, it was like a date via PowerPoint presentation, but it was a great way for us to revisit happier times as we wait to see each other in future happy times. How have you celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and other milestones in the past year?

Thanks for reading! Tell me what you’re up to at home by dropping me a line at rcartagena@washingtonian.com.

Rosa is a senior editor at Bitch Magazine. She’s written for Washingtonian and Smithsonian magazine.