WEEKEND EVENTS: Retreating Away---near and far. Garden Jazz, Sengalese Art, and Health-N-Wellness Expo.

The winds of life try to blow us in many directions, and sometimes we must simply allow them to sweep us away. So, this weekend I am retreating away from the city to rekindle my soul. No particular itinerary, nor particular destinations delineated on paper, simply a list of country festivals and quaint towns along the scenic mountainside drives of Virginia (North Carolina too, if I happen to make it that far south). My country meanderings reconnect me to the explorer within, and challenge me to let go of the weights that carry heavy on my shoulders.

Everyone “retreats away” in their own ways, and for some that may mean actually silencing time and staying right where you’re at. With rooftop pools and parks across Washington, DC open for the season, there are many places to find peace as we launch into the early months of summer.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that this weekend is also Memorial Day, our national holiday for celebrating the brave souls whose bodies were lost during service to our country. Even if you’re not one to visit cemeteries or to participate in Memorial Day parades and festivities, I hope you will take a moment to salute the men and women who have made sacrifices for our freedom and how they have shaped who we are today. I’ve included just a few of many celebrations and events happening around town below.

JAZZ in the Garden
Lady A (jazz and R & B vocalist)
Friday, May 22nd (and every Friday through September 11th)
5:00pm - 8:30pm
National Gallery Sculpture Garden (Metro: Navy Archives or the Circulator)
Free

Sangria, Food and Beverages are available for purchase at the Pavillion Cafe. You can also bring your own picnic and be sure to bring a blanket to chill out on the grass with your friends as seating is limited. For complete details and more info please click here! For a map of the Sculpture Garden, please click here.

Constructed Color: Amish Quilts
All Weekend
The Textile Museum
2320 S Street (Metro: Dupont Circle, Q Street Exit)
Open Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-5pm
Sundays from o1pm-5pm
Free Admission
Textilemuseum.org
Celebrate one of America’s most beloved artistic traditions at The Textile Museum this spring and summer.

Senegalese Folk Paintings with Artist, Niang Thierno
Saturday, May 23, 2009
1:00pm to 4:00pm
The Culture Shop
341 Cedar St., NW
Washington, DC 20012
cultureshop.com

Memorial Weekend Sale! 50% Off Senegalese Folk Paintings. 20% off any one item of your choice. Sizzling summer items arriving daily - shop early. In-store promotion only

Invited artist, Niang Thierno, is returning to France after an extended stay in the States.
Culture Shop patrons have a unique opportunity to purchase his fiery paintings at closeout prices. Mr.Thierno discovered his passion in 1966 during the African Art Festival in Dakar, Senegal - which ultimately led to his first exposition at the historic Goree Island in Senegal. His artistic technique is indicative of his origin - with everything around him reflecting a source of inspiration and creativity.

Pure Love Unity Festival & Health-N-Wellness Expo
(An event of DC Black Pride Weekend)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Love Night Club
1350 Okie St, NW
Washington, DC 20002
Admission: $10.00 or FREE w/ Pure Love Pass
Open to the public - 18 y/o or Older - No Children
The Pure Love Festival is a combination of celebration of the arts and
a celebration of self love, through health and wellness. The 19th
annual festival features local and national talent, vendors, food,
games, prizes and special guest. The Health & Wellness expo consist of
health and fitness providers from various arenas to offer fitness and
exercise training, healthy cooking, diabetes, syphilis, HIV, sickle-
cell anemia, cholesterol screenings and body mass index evaluations.
Special Guest: City Gym Boys, De Marco Majors and National Recording
Artists Crystal Waters.

For more information about these and other events (including parties,
poetry slams, movie screenings, interfaith services, and a bbq), see:
http://www.dcblackpride.org/ and http://phatgirlchic.com/bpride_09.html.

Kennedy Center National Memorial Day Choral Festival
May 24, 2009
2 p.m.
Admission: $10
A 90-minute program features American choral classics in honor of those who have fought to preserve our nation's heritage.

PBS' National Memorial Day Concert
Sunday, May 24, 2009
8 p.m. Gates open at 5 p.m.
PBS sponsors a FREE concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The concert features actors Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise, and other guest artists along with conductor Erich Kunzel and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Finding Community: A Lifelong Journey for Some

“The current state of the economy suggests we are needed as much now, as ever before. Working to help women step up and out of homelessness is a process. Change may come slowly, but when it comes, it comes with great reward.”
Dawn Swan, Executive Director at Rachael’s Women’s Center in Washington, DC

Community is something that many of us take for granted everyday.

Our colleagues at work, our families and neighbors, a church congregation, or perhaps our sorority sisters---communities that many of us rely upon on a regular basis (consciously or subconsciously). Community is the network of support that helps us sew together the patchwork pieces of our personalities and talents together into a vibrant quilt that defines who we are. As difficult as it is to imagine, there are many women who are not encircled with a community of personal support. Even the strongest individuals among us, would struggle to find our self-confidence and individual strengths if we lacked the materials and sewing circle for seaming together the ups and downs of our lives into something that ironed out into an inherently beautiful creation.

I first recognized the gifts that I had in my community of family and friends when I met women who had none during a semester long, service-learning program in the Over-the-Rhine community of Cincinnati, Ohio during college. Second-Floor, West, was the corridor where many of the women of the Drop-In Center’s Substance Abuse Recovery Program found a community they could belong to for the first time in their lives. It felt like a prison to some and an escape to others. Through tears and testimony they shed their fears and found hope that they could find forgiveness in themselves and in the people in their lives that had failed them. Seeking to heal themselves would take self-discipline and personal will power, in addition to an ability to trust in themselves and the community of people around them to be there when they couldn’t handle the rough road alone.

Family was obscured for many. My friend Kim, a homeless, recovering alcoholic, had expended her wild cards with her family, and they no longer wanted anything to do with her. Erratic behavior, and decisions that spun her life out of control caused some of her self-destruction. Without a “home”, both figuratively and metaphorically, she followed a pathway into loneliness---a pathway into loneliness that only those that have experience losing their way can understand. The bottle became her friend, and the only constant she could count on in her life.

During long walks through Washington Park (the only substantial green space that was accessible to the women) and on the way to the Family Dollar Store or church for worship and concerts, we bonded together. We learned from each other---I received as much as they received from me. In the 6’x15’ closet, turned smoke room, the women shared with one another, and grew closer. Even though there was still much discordance between them in the ways that they would recover, they now had each other. Their bonds, and the halls of their temporary home, provided a safe haven and a place for picking up the pieces of their lives and finally finding the internal and external peace needed to rebuild.

I was reminded of how important community is on a visit to Rachael’s Women’s Center, a space of growth that has existed for homeless women in the Washington, DC area for the past 30 years. Although the center services over 400 clients every year---some women that are facing substance abuse (50 women a year) and others mental health crisises (70 women a year)--- for most of the remaining clients, the space is a place for seeking support and friendship. One client that I talked with described the weekly bingo games as the reason she returned to Rachael’s Center on a regular basis---an unexpected answer considering that the center provides many other substantial services including meals, showers & laundry, case management, intensive care management, employment counseling, and even computer training. This “real” answer revealed an underlying reality----without the power of friendship and community, all of the other tools that are of our disposal may fall short of meeting one’s needs.

The friendship of community is the thread that seams the quilt together…particularly for women who find home at Rachael’s Women’s Center and other safe havens in Washington, DC and across the country. You can chose to be a friend to those around you by reminding yourself to be there for those closest to you when they need you, and also as a friend to complete strangers---through volunteer service, or simply a warm hello or smile to someone that you pass on the street. Your outreach may help someone find new hope and community.
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I encourage you to learn more about volunteering at Rachael’s Women’s Center by visiting www.rachaels.org.

WEEKEND EVENTS: Curb Day 2009, Sitar Concert and an 18th Century Market

This seems to be the time of the year during which we grow and adapt. Intellectually as we find new hobbies and subjects to educate ourselves on, physically as we change our wardrobes and bodies to match the changing seasons, and emotionally as we reconnect with the stories of our history.

I’m planning to spend the weekend rediscovering myself, and there are some ways that you can as well. Start the weekend out by doing some spring cleaning (or helping someone else out with this task) by participating in Curb Day 2009. On Sunday, clean out your closet and upgrade your wardrobe simultaneously by participating in a Recessionista’s Closet Clothes Swap.

If you’re in the mood to learn something new, enjoy a Sitar Concert (see photo) with a native of Bangladash, Alif Laila this afternoon, or stop in to see one of the featured films of the Reel Time Brazil Film Festival this weekend. To top the weekend off, travel back in history by participating in the festivities at the 18th Century Market Fair at the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, just a few minutes outside of the city.
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Alif Laila Sitar Concert
Presented by the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company
Saturday May 16, 2009 at 3:00 pm Westminster Presbyterian Church 400 I Street SW (Waterfront Metro)
RSVP to rsvp@dakshina.org
Alif Laila was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her connection with the arts was very deep since early childhood. After initial training in vocal music, she was eventually inspired to learn the sitar by her mother, Shehida in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Alif embraces the Sitar as the instrument of her soul. For more information please visit her website:www.aliflailasitar.com and blog:http://aliflailasitar.blogspot.com.

Curb Day 2009
May 16, 2009
More info. at http://www.curbday.com/
Saturday, May 16, 2009 has been designated 'Curb Day 2009: the world's biggest giveaway'. The idea is for people across North America to participate by bringing their extra (but still still valuable) items to their curbs for others to pick up that weekend.

Recessionista's Closet: WIN Clothing Swap!
Sunday, May 17
2pm–4pm WIN office (11 Dupont Circle, NW Suite 243)
For more information and to RSVP email the Environment Network Chairs at environment@winonline.org
Don't throw away your clothes when you resurrect your summer wardrobe. Clean out your closet and get "new to you" items while helping the environment -- just imagine how much cotton we will save. Wearable or easily repairable items - no undies please! Clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories welcome. Extra clothes go to good causes - Dress for Success, Amicus Green Building Drive (to become insulation for habitat homes in the gulf coast), and Goodwill.

Brazilian Film Festival
Friday, May 15th – Sunday, May 17th
FREE
The Hirshhorn Museum (Independence Avenue at Seventh Street, SW---L’Enfant Plaza Metro) AND The Greenberg Theater (4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW---Tenleytown Metro)
“II Reel Time Brazil – a Documentary Film Week” The Embassy of Brazil, along with the Smithsonian Latino Center, will present the film festival – II Reel Time Brazil this weekend, May 15th - 17th. The festival will showcase five documentary films that highlight Brazilian culture through the stories of historical Brazilian icons. Three of the films will make their U.S. debut. The Embassy has once again invited film directors and special guests to speak with audience members about the making of the featured films. All festival events are free and open to the public. Seats are on a first come, first served basis.
Saturday, May 16th
4:00pm – 5:30pm "Pan-Cinema Permanente" Permanent Pan-Cinema, Greenberg Theater 6:00pm – 7:15pm "Panair do Brasil" Greenberg Theater
Sunday, May 17th
4:00pm – 5:30pm "Só Dez Por Cento é Mentira" Only Ten Percent is a Lie, Greenberg Theater 6:00pm – 7:30pm "Simonal – Ninguém Sabe O Duro que Dei" Simonal – No One Knows How Tough It Was, Greenberg Theater

Spring 18th Century Market Fair at "Claude Moore Colonial Farm"
Saturday & Sunday, May 16 & 17
11 am - 4:30 pm
6310 Georgetown Pike , McLean, VA 22101 http://www.1771.org/
A visit to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm is a visit to another world ...the world of an 18th Century family living on a small, low-income farm just prior to the Revolutionary War.

WORDS to INSPIRE: Liberating our colorful inner spirits...

As we approach Mother’s Day, a poem that reminds us to be forgiving of our mothers, grandmas, and sisters for the times they made us turn red in public from embarrassment. Eventually, every one of us will discover our colorful inner spirits. And when we discover our inner audacity, we may just be more liberated souls.
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Warning
Jenny Joseph
(1960 at Age 28)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

WEEKEND EVENTS: Yoga on the Mall, Greek Festival and Passport DC

May is one of my favorite months (not to mention the month I was born in)! It is a time of transition between seasons and a month when the blues of winter fade away to reveal the smiles of summer-time fun.

Start the first Saturday of May off right with FREE “Yoga on the Mall” with the Younger Women’s Task Force in celebration of National Women’s Health Month (I'll blog more about this soon).

If you’re itching to leave town, but your pocketbook is a bit too light, fear not. Washington, DC will be teeming with low budget opportunities to take a sneak peak at destinations around the globe during Passport DC 2009. Over 27 embassies will open their doors to the public from 10am to 4pm on Saturday to showcase the culture, history and traditions of their countries. If feel like you’d rather sail off to the isles, join your extended family at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for authentic Greek food, an Agora marketplace, church tours, and even some parathosi dancing (aka…Greek dancing). I’ve attended the festival a few times in the past, and have really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and family-friendly crowd.

Want to feed your inner beat? Head on over to the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop on Saturday night to celebrate Saartjie Baartman, a South African women that was finally returned to her homeland to rest in 2002 almost 200 years after her body was exploited as exhibit in Europe. Join musicians and a collection of artists to explore the intersection of art and music in the healing process.

If you’re looking to extend your weekend to support some great organizations, join Running Start next Tuesday to applaud the next generation of young female leaders at the “2009 Women to Watch Awards”. Another highlight of the coming week is the FairFUND’s “Pearls of Purpose”, a fundraiser to support the survivors of human trafficking. This year’s FairFUND honoree will be Congresswoman Shelia Jackson-Lee, a legislator who has taken the issue of assisting trafficked children to heart.

Have fun, and feel free to forward your photos and recommendations for next weekend my way!
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Join the Younger Women's Task Force for Yoga on the Mall!
At no cost in honor of National Women's Health Month
Saturday, May 2nd 11:00 am
At the Constitution Gardens near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
(The closest intersection is Constitution Ave and 23rd St NW)
Don't know where to go? A group will be meeting at 10:30 am outside the Foggy Bottom metro stop to walk over together. Bring water and a mat/towel.
Email ywtfdc@gmail.com for more information.
To see the full schedule of YWTF meetings and events, add the YWTF:DC google calendar to your calendar. You can also join us on Facebook!

St. George’s Greek Festival Friday, May 1st- 11:30AM-10:00PM Saturday, May 2nd- Noon-10:00PM Sunday, May 3rd- Noon-8:00PM
7701 Bradley Blvd
Bethesda, MD 20817
Directions: http://www.stgeorge.org/app/w_page.php?id=39&type=section
Information: here: http://www.stgeorge.org/app/w_page.php?id=74&type=section
Rain or Shine! FREE Admission and Parking!

The Saartjie Project hosts a Juried Artist & Benfit Concert May 2, 2009
8:00pm
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
545 7th Street, SE
Washington, DC
Donation: $20
http://www.thesaartjieproject.org/The_Saartjie_Project/The_Saartjie_Project.html

Running Start “2009 Women to Watch Awards” Tuesday, May 5, 2009
6:00pm-7:00pm VIP Reception
7:00pm-9:00pm Dinner and Awards Program
National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor
For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.runningstartonline.org
http://www.runningstartonline.org/events/women-to-watch-invite.php
The Women to Watch Awards, held each spring in Washington, DC celebrates Running Start’s efforts to inspire young women to run for public office.

FairFUND “Pearls of Purpose” THURSDAY, MAY 7TH, 2009
DOORS OPEN 7:00 PM
OPENING REMARKS 7:45 PM
THE DACOR BACON HOUSE
1801 F STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20006
TICKETS
$100 General Admission
$60 Young Professionals
http://fairfund.org/subpage.asp?P=events&S=default#tickets
FAIR Fund's 3rd annual gala, Pearls of Purpose, celebrates the creativity and strength of each young woman nurtured by FAIR Fund's circle of support, who is now truly leading a life safer from human trafficking, exploitation, and sexual assault.