Happy Thursday, everyone!
Celebrate the special women in your life for Mother’s Day at a number of concerts and arts festivals this weekend; there’s a community spring book fair to explore, too.
Best Things to Do This Weekend
- Jewish Film and Music Festival. The Jewish Film and Music Festival returns with more than 50 films, concerts, and conversations highlighting international voices and stories. Opening night will premiere Jake Paltrow’s June Zero followed by a talk-back with the director. In celebration of Israel’s 75th anniversary, the Shalva Band, an eight-person Israeli music group with disabilities, will headline the music portion of the festivities (Thurs through May 21, $30+ for passes, various locations).
- Books in Bloom. Book enthusiasts are invited to gather in downtown Columbia for the Books in Bloom literary festival. Readers can hear arts and literature stories from authors including Chasten Buttigieg and Nikki Giovanni, learn about banned books, browse the pop-up library, and be part of a poetry showcase (Sat, free, Columbia).
- Maryland Craft Beer Festival. Taste beer from a variety of Maryland breweries at the Maryland Craft Beer Festival. The year’s event Carroll Creek Linear Park will offer drinks from new and established craft vendors, as well as food and live music (Sat, $15+, Frederick).
- Mother’s Day Luminaria. empowerHER brings family and friends together this Mother’s Day for their annual remembrance Luminaria ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. Children and adults who have experienced parent loss are encouraged to write a memory love note on a luminaria bag to be displayed across the memorial steps; proceeds benefit the organization (Sun, suggested $25 donation, Lincoln Memorial).
- “La Bohème” opera. The Washington National Opera performs the Giacomo Puccini classic La Bohème at the Kennedy Center. The popular Paris romance opens this weekend featuring an acclaimed international cast, enchanting music, and performance talks with the artists and director; the show is in Italian with projected English titles (Sat through May 27, $45+).
Want More Things to Do?
Budget-friendly. Participate in an introductory whitewater rafting class with Soul Trak (Thurs, free, Georgetown). The Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody is showing on the Potomac (Thurs, free, National Harbor). The NoMa Farmers Market is back at Alethia Tanner Park (every Thurs through October 19, free, NoMa).
Arts and culture. Celebrate Mother’s Day at Plant House and build a terrarium (Fri-Sun, $25+, Alexandria). Watch the 1986 Top Gun movie outdoors at the Navy Memorial (Thurs, free, Penn Quarter). Television producer Andy Cohen discusses The Daddy Diaries (Thurs, $12+, virtual). Sarah Marshall, podcast host of You’re Wrong About, chats live at the Fillmore Silver Spring (Thurs, $40+, Silver Spring). Tour Portico Gallery and meet more than 30 artists at the Arts, Beats, and Eats Festival (Sat, free, Brentwood). Shop furniture, jewelry, ceramics, and more at Bethesda Fine Arts Festival (Sat-Sun, free, Bethesda). “Doing The Work” photo, sculpture, and drawing exhibition opens at the Kreeger Museum (Sat through August 5, free, Northwest DC). Find antique goods at the Takoma Flea market (Sat, free, Takoma Park). Don’t miss the National Museum of Asian Art’s Centennial Open Market and concert (Sat, free, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art).
Community and history. Recognize Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by learning Hawaiian hula dancing and knot tying (Sun, free, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian), or see cultural performances by local nonprofit Halau Nohona Hawai’i at Northwood High School (Sat, $10+, free for children under 5, Silver Spring). Watch a film about reading equality at Planet Word (Thurs, free, Northwest DC).
Theater and shows. Comedians rant about life’s inconveniences in the Go Off comedy show at City-State Brewing (Fri, $15, Edgewood). Good Bones, a new stage play about community and gentrification, opens this weekend at Studio Theatre (closes June 18, $50+, Northwest DC). Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti performs at Broadway in Bethesda (Sat, $150+, Bethesda). Choreographer-in-residence Dana Tai Soon Burgess presents an abstract work inspired by paintings (Sun, free, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery). It’s National Bike Month: Watch biking documentary Chasing History at Alamo Drafthouse (Fri, free, Arlington).
Bites and beverages. Take a Mother’s Day rosé wine tour at District Winery (Sat-Sun, $55, Navy Yard). Eat Mexican cuisine at dLeña and listen to live music by Trio Candela by Eli Staples (Sun, free entry, Northwest DC).
Music and concerts. The Cathedral Choral Society and the Heritage Signature Choral play a retrospective of selections from Black composers at Washington National Cathedral (Sun, $20+, virtual, Northwest DC). Rock and disco group Cobra Man is live in concert at 9:30 Club (Sun, $22, Northwest DC). Bluegrass band Town Mountain performs at Pearl Street Warehouse (Fri, $20+, Wharf). New Zealand violinist Geneva Lewis plays classical melodies at the Kennedy Center (Sun, $30+, Kennedy Center). Women jazz vocalists band together to honor pianist Mary Lou Williams (Fri-Sat, $40+, Kennedy Center).
Things to do with kids. Kids can blast into space at the film screening of Toy Story’s Lightyear (Sun, free, National Harbor). Children’s book author Eva Chen signs her latest title I Am Golden (Sat, free, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art). Celebrate nature with crafts, music, and environmental fun at Green Man Festival (Sat-Sun, free, Greenbelt).
Get involved. Dr. Neal Barnard performs songs from CarbonWorks’s new album at AFI Silver Theatre; proceeds from the event benefit the Physicians Committee’s work to save animals (Thurs, donations welcome, Silver Spring).
If you enjoyed these events, please don’t forget to share this post with a friend on social media, and sign up for our newsletter for more things to do.
Briana A. Thomas is a local journalist, historian, and tour guide who specializes in the research of D.C. history and culture. She is the author of the Black history book, Black Broadway in Washington, D.C., a story that was first published in Washingtonian in 2016.
