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Category Archives: Culture

Around Town: January 19-21

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Dance, volunteer, and swashbuckle with Catalogue nonprofits …

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE, Washington, DC)

An integral part of the DC dance community for over 20 years, KanKouran presents their annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday & Saturday at 8:00 PM. Tickets right this way.

Constellation Theatre Company (at Source, 1835 14th Street NW, Washington, DC)

Zorro, the masked avenger, is born when quiet, bookish Diego must find a way to fight corruption and injustice. Catch a “pay what you can” preview of Zorro on Friday at 8:30 PM.

Rock Creek Conservancy (Multiple locations in DC)

On Saturday morning, save Rock Creek Park trees in Normanstone Park in front of the British Embassy or at Soapstone Valley park trail head on Albemarle Street NW. Learn more right here.

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (at Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW, Washington, DC)

Assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors in the North Capitol and Shaw neighborhoods on Saturday at 10:00 AM. You can sign up online right here.

Coming Up: “Look at Literacy” with Literacy Council of Montgomery County on Wednesday at 7:30 PM at the Rockville Library.

Coming Up: January 11-17

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At your local Catalogue nonprofit …

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE, Washington, DC)

Deep Vision Dance Company & withhart.dance.projects come together for an evening of modern dance ranging from the weighted to the humorous on Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 4:00 PM. Tickets right this way!

Literacy Council of Montgomery County (Rockville Library, 21 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD)

Attend an Adult Literacy Tutor Orientation for volunteers interested in helping adults learn to read, write, or speak English on Monday from 10:30 AM to noon. Learn more right here.

Audubon Naturalist Society (Woodend Sanctuary, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD)

Washington Post environmental writer Juliet Eilperin will speak on “The Outlook for the Environment in the Second Obama Administration” at a members’ meeting on Tuesday from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM. RSVP here.

Constellation Theatre Company (Source, 1835 14th Street NW, Washington, DC)

On Thursday at 8:30 PM, catch a Pay-What-You-Can Preview of Zorro — the masked avenger, who is born when quiet, bookish Diego must find a way to fight corruption and injustice. More info over here.

In The News …

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DC area unemployment rate is unchanged at 5.3 percent (Washington Post: Local): “The Washington area jobless rate hovered at 5.3% in November, according to a Labor Department report released Tuesday that revealed little change in the local employment picture […] the Washington economy has been steadily adding jobs, but not at a fast enough clip for the recovery to shift into higher gear.” Education and health services posted the largest job gains, with the latter alone adding 11,300 between November 2011 and 2012. Local leisure and hospitality continued to add jobs as well, while manufacturing and construction both subtracted. Overall, the area remains well below the national rate of 7.8%.

The Fiscal Cliff Legislation: A Primer for Nonprofits on Its Provisions (Nonprofit Quarterly): “The short message that should be taken away from the so-called “fiscal cliff” legislation passed last night is that it is no time to relax […] Here is our scorecard on the fiscal cliff mini-bargain.” At the NPQ website, you can read an overview of the final legislation on charitable deductions, marginal tax rates, and other taxes (such as the payroll tax); that said, “good news for nonprofits and the communities they serve is that a variety of programs that benefit working class and lower income people have been saved — for the time being.”

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Stepping Into the Holidays

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by Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with a step show? This month, Step Afrika! is ringing in the season with its Magical Musical Holiday Step Show. Last weekend, Catalogue’s Sherika Brooks and I stopped by the Atlas Performing Arts Center to check out the show and volunteer as ushers for the performance.

The Magical Musical Holiday Step Show demonstrated all that is good about Step Afrika!, and how traditional rhythms and moves can be translated into any type of dance celebration. While the holiday show is light, fun and family-friendly, the history of Step Afrika! and its work tells a very rich story.

Step Afrika! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to stepping. For almost 20 years, the company’s performances have celebrated the connection between the type of stepping common in college fraternities in the US and the gumboot dance, created by South African mineworkers. Step Afrika! brings its dance tradition to communities across the US through an annual college and theater tour, as well as performing across the world.

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Around Town: December 15-16

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Have a good mid-December weekend, Greater Washington! And consider spending some time with a local nonprofit:

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (at Kelsey Apartments, 3322 14th Street NW)

On Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, volunteers will help assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors in Columbia Heights; cars are not required, but are certainly helpful. Learn more here.

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

Usher in the holiday season with Dance Place’s annual Kwanzaa Celebration on Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 4:00 PM. Gather family and friends and join Coyaba Academy, Coyaba Dance Theater, and special guests.

Joy of Motion Dance Center (5207 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC)

Don’t miss the fall Studio to Stage Performance Class Showcase, featuring choreography by Joy Of Motion’s talented faculty, on Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 7:00 PM. Tickets this way!

The Child and Family Network Centers (at The Morrison House, 116 South Alfred Street, Alexandria, VA) *To Be Rescheduled.

Come to the Morrison House in Old Town Alexandria for Tea with Santa, as well as children’s activities and photos, and suppor the Child and Family Network Centers at the same time.

DC Youth Orchestra Program (at Eastern High School Auditorium, 1700 E. Capitol Street NE)

DC Youth Orchestra Program’s top two orchestras — the Youth Orchestra and Junior Orchestra — perform holiday favorites, including selections from the “Nutcracker Suite” and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” Learn more right here.

Writing to Dream

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by Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Some students grow up dreaming to write; others use writing as a way to express their dreams, desires, and inner most thoughts.

The young authors of Young Playwrights’ Theater perhaps do both, and now have a new platform from which to share their words with the world. This winter, Young Playwrights’ Theater published its first book, Write to Dream — a collection of plays written by YPT students, as well as information on YPT’s arts education program and curriculum.

The plays written by YPT students represent an artistic achievement worthy of publication in and of themselves, but the additional information on curriculum and assessment adds an additional level of justification and value to YPT’s work. Plays range in topic from satires on capitalism (written by a fifth grader!) to magnetic superheroes, inter-racial romance and gang violence.

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Essential Parts

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From “Under new principal, Savoy Elementary shows what art can teach” in this weekend’s Washington Post:

“ Ma and Damian Woetzel, a former principal with the New York City Ballet, spent more than an hour in a classroom with students, dancing, playing music and rehearsing pieces that they later performed on stage for the whole school.

It was one small part of Principal Patrick Pope’s broader effort to use the arts to transform Savoy, where poverty is pervasive and fewer than one-fifth of students are proficient in math and reading.

As Pope sees it, song, dance, theater and visual arts aren’t tacked-on extras — they’re essential parts of creating a school where students and teachers thrive. Students agree.”

Students in grades three through five now have “twice as much art and music time” as they did previously. But Rachel Goslins, executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, explains, “We are having a national conversation about how to fix our schools, and the arts were not in that conversation.”

Needless to say, the prevailing question is: how can we expand that conversation?

Learn more about Catalogue’s Performing, Literary, and Visual Arts nonprofits, many of which work directly with our schools, right here.