this weekend in Anacostia

there is a ton of great stuff going on today and tomorrow: music, food, art, and more. Come on out to Anacostia and check out a piece of this chock-full weekend.

Click Here for an interactive walking map of the weekend's events!

Friday Night: Cherry Blast
art + music + dance + fashion + anime + origami



When: Friday, April 10, from 9PM to 2AM
Where: 2020 Shannon Place SE
How Much: $10 (21+)

Getting There and Back:

FREE shuttle from Dupont Circle: Pickup on the corner of 20th Street and Massachusetts Ave (on the island between CVS and PNC Bank). First pick up at 8:30 PM and every half hour after that until 1:30 AM. Look for the yellow school bus!

Metro: Anacostia stop on the Green Line. FREE shuttle will run from the metro station to the event.

Parking: Lots of FREE street parking nearby and FREE parking at the Big Chair parking lot on the corner of MLK Ave, SE and V Street, SE.

Music and Video:
Yoko K + Aphrodizia
Optical Groove with A DC DJ
302acid
John Bowen - Video Killers DC
JMC

Art:
Words Beats Life, Inc.
Asad ULTRA Walker
Hiromi Ashlin, courtesy of Gallery Sydney-East
Cory Oberndorfer

Fashion:
Moojooken

Dance:
CityDance Ensemble

Spoken Word Performance:
Life Pieces to Masterpieces - Hope & Renewal

Film:
DC Anime Club

Light Design:
David London - Divergency

Food:
On the Fly

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All Day Saturday:



The day kicks off at 10 am in the Anacostia Park with a Cherry Blossom tree planting and dedication to Phil Pannell, Marion Barry and Butch Hopkins by the Anacostia Garden Club. The festival continues with live jazz music by The Young Lions at Honfleur Gallery at 1241 Good Hope Road at 1 pm. More music can be heard throughout the day from 11am – 11pm at Eric Whitehead’s JazzNSoul Café, located at 2020 Shannon Place S.E. Musicians include SamO & JFC, Earl Carter, Glenn Arnett, Jamie Jones, Paul Chew, Nonya Whitley, DJ JAMMER and many more!


the location of the Cherry Blast and Jazz events

The Art Walk begins just a short distance from the Anacostia Metro with the grand opening of Vivid Solutions, a new photographic gallery located at 1227 Good Hope Road S.E. Sakura: Awakened by Spring is a group show of photography all submitted with the Spring theme in mind. It is full of color, nature and some unexpected visions.

Outside in the open lot next to the gallery is the Art + Craft Market, open all day with local artists ready to sell their work. Please stop by and see the assortment of jewelry, paintings, books and other crafts. At the market, Curbside Café offers their homemade burritos, and pick up an Anacostia Cherry Blossom Festival t-shirt as well. Other food is available along the Art Walk; check out the Jamaican cafe or renowned Soul Food restaurant on MLK Jr. Ave.

Continue on the Art Walk to the storefront at 2204 MLK Jr. Ave SE where you will find a Pink Line Project exhibit in collaboration with Critical Exposure, with curatorial assistance from Chanel Compton. Don’t forget to also check out the Cherry Blast event the night before the festival on Friday April 10th from 9pm-2am, also hosted by The Pink Line Project. Cherry Blast highlights fine art, live music, dance, a DJ, fashion, anime, and origami, presented in association with the National Cherry Blossom Festival and through funding from the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

Alison Spain will paint "live" in a raw studio space on the next stop on the Art Walk at 2200 MLK Jr. Ave S.E. She is offering a charcoal drawing workshop for area youth from 2pm - 4pm; all are welcomed to join. Spain’s colorful abstract paintings are larger than life in both size and dynamism. Upstairs is a showcase of eight selected artists invited to use the space to display their work in any way possible. Don’t miss all this creative energy!

Stop into the American Poetry Museum at 1922 MLK Jr Ave, to hear some live readings by local poets. The current exhibit, Beats to the Rhyme: Visual Representations of Hip-Hop Poetry features works by Franc Rosario, Sami Miranda, Fred Joiner, Howard Fleming, Kenneth Robinson, and Nia Smith. The next space on the Art Walk is at 1231 Good Hope Road S.E. at Arch Training Center, showing local student photography in Spring Visions and Inspirations. Just a few doors down at Honfleur Gallery, take in Darren Smith’s solo exhibition Cross & Ladder. This DC Based artist pushes the boundaries of photography with handmade photo mosaics and a few large installation pieces.