Here’s a great list of artsy and cultural things to do tonight and this weekend that won’t cost you a lot, highlights from my site, Free in DC. Enjoy!
Tonight
Celebrate the art of Arlington’s Mongolian-American Community at the opening of “Hamtdaa: Together” at Artisphere in Rosslyn from 6 to 9 p.m. Gankhuyag Natsag pays homage to traditional and contemporary Mongolia in his Tsam dance masks, ceremonial costumes, and paintings.
Former Poet Laureate of Maryland and two-time National Book Award nominee Linda Pastan will be at Politics and Prose at 7 p.m. to read from and sign her 14th collection of poems, Traveling Light.
Friday
In Anacostia, Honfleur Gallery and sister space the Gallery at Vivid Solutions both host art openings tonight. Honfleur’s open from 7 to 9 p.m. with “Try a Little Tenderness as Painful as it Seems,” featuring works by Canadian contemporary artist Ben Skinner. At Vivid Solutions from 6 to 8 p.m., Gerard Lange is exhibiting mixed-media collages in “Cartograph.”
Check out some literary readings by Emerging Writer Fellowship recipients Matthew Pittand James Hannaham, and music by the Caribbean at the monthly Story/Stereo event from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda.
Guerrilla poster artist and political activist Robbie Conal comes to Bubsoys and Poets 14th & V at 8:30 p.m. to discuss Not Your Typical Political Animal, a recap of 25 years of “Art Attacks,” his satirical street art featuring images of American politicians, TV evangelists, media pundits and global capitalists.
Saturday
Celebrate the increasingly longer days and warmer weather at Sedenka, a traditional Bulgarian festival of springtime, at the Church of the Holy City from 2 to 4 p.m. The Bulgarian women’s choir Orfeia will sing traditional village music and Sephardic Jewish songs. Other festivities include storytelling, song and dance performance and instruction, knitting, and martenitsa making. Donations encouraged.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder comes to the Freer Gallery at 2 p.m. for a poetry reading and conversation on East Asian habitats, landscapes and traditions of representing the natural world. Snyder will recite some East Asian poetry as well as his own seasonal poems, in conjunction with the exhibit “Seasons: Chinese Landscapes”.
If you have kids, or haven’t been to the Textile Museum before, you might want to the tie-dye workshop from 2 to 4 p.m., recommended for ages four to 12. Kids will have a chance to create their own colorful textiles using various fold and tie techniques to create unique designs. Admission to the museum is by donation.
Sunday
The Maxiumum India Festival is on now through March 20 at the Kennedy Center. From 2 to 2:45 p.m. listen to spaceship designer Susmita Moganty discuss avant-garde concepts of future spaceship systems in a lecture for all ages.
L.A. folk/pop duo Me & Mr.Cassidy plays its first East Coast show at BloomBars in Columbia Heights. Duke Ellington alum Phillip Noss also performs at the venue’s Seed the Sound event, which starts at 8:30 p.m.
Amy Melrose is the creator of Free in DC, an arts, culture, and consciousness blog highlighting free and low-cost events that are all Metro accessible in the D.C. area. You can also follow Free in DC on Twitter and Facebook.