Tonight: Sensor Ghost, Sam Ray, and Des Demonas at Fort Reno Park

Monday: Java Sparrow, Trash Boat & the Ambush, and Cinema Hearts at Fort Reno Park

Wiping your sweat, dodging mosquitos, and nodding your head to some local punk band’s performance at Fort Reno Park is a D.C. summer rite of passage. Tenleytown’s summer concert series dates back to 1968, when it was started as a bandage for a city scarred by Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and the uprising that followed. The first artists to take the stage were psychedelic hippie bands and blues-influenced rockers who would play to an audience that included students from the neighboring high school (now known as Jackson-Reed) and local residents. In the ’80s, Fort Reno became a training ground for the city’s blossoming punk scene, paving the way for hardcore groups like Rites of Spring and Fugazi to take its modest stage. The heyday of D.C. punk may be behind us, but this summer, Fort Reno organizers have been working hard to carry the scene’s torch forward. You’ve got two more chances this season to take part in the beloved tradition: Tonight, Aug. 3, art-punk trio Sensor Ghost, Sam Ray (of Baltimore’s Tumblr-era emo project Teen Suicide), and experimental rock band Des Demonas take the stage starting at 7 p.m. On Monday, Aug. 7, ’60s-inspired outfit Java Sparrow, anarchist punks Trash Boat & the Ambush, and pageant queen-turned-punk rocker Cinema Hearts will play their rescheduled show. The concerts are free, but bring $25 if you want a limited-edition Fort Reno T-shirt. Who knows? They might be worth a lot more one day, as Fort Reno’s rich history continues to unfold. Sensor Ghost play at 7 p.m. on Aug. 3 at Fort Reno Park, 4000 Chesapeake St. NW. Java Sparrow play at 7 p.m. on Aug. 7. fortreno.com. Free. —Ella Feldman

Friday: Hillary Hahn with National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap

Who can resist spending time outside listening to great music? DMV residents can enjoy another outdoor concert on Aug. 4 when the National Symphony Orchestra returns to Wolf Trap with a program of heartrending favorites from the 19th century. Leading off is three-time Grammy-winning violinist Hillary Hahn playing Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major. Hahn, who grew up in the Baltimore area, has been touring and recording for more than 20 years. Her expressive violin playing and close engagement with fans have already become legendary in the American classical music scene. While Hahn is well known for commissioning new works from contemporary composers, she’s bringing back a cornerstone of violin repertoire with Brahms’ only violin concerto. The piece has become a standout for violin soloists since it was first composed in 1878. The second leg of the program features Alpesh Chauhan conducting Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s emotional Symphony No. 4 in F Minor. Chauhan was most recently the principal guest conductor at the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and has been a guest conductor all over the world. He has been described as having a “tremendous flair for Tchaikovsky” and just released a recording of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. You can’t beat a night at the symphony in one of the best outdoor venues in the U.S. The National Symphony Orchestra with Hillary Hahn and Alpesh Chauhan play at 8 p.m. on Aug. 4 at the Filene Center, 1551 Trap Rd., Vienna. wolftrap.org. $25–$76. — Tristan Jung

Sunday: COMPLETA: Black Women, Black Art, and the Centennial of 16mm Film at the National Gallery of Art

Simone Leigh, who was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2022, will be in conversation with Yale University doctoral student and scholar Yasmina Price at the National Gallery of Art this weekend. COMPLETA, a screening of three films by Black women using 16 mm film—featuring shorts by Sarah Maldoror, Julie Dash, and a co-directed piece by Leigh and Madeleine Hunt–Ehrlich, will be followed by the conversation between Leigh and Price. As a highly celebrated artist, Leigh has created an extensive body of work over the past 20 years that includes sculpture and installation. She, in collaboration with Hunt-Ehrlich, produced “Conspiracy,” a 24-minute film that was featured in Sovereignty, Leigh’s aforementioned Biennale exhibition. “Conspiracy” was created as an homage to the short 1962 film “Hands on Inge” about the African American woman sculptor Inge Hardison. Both films use 16 mm black and white film and explore the work and methodology of Black women sculptors. A writer and frequent participant in panels, Price’s writing has been featured in Art in America, The New Inquiry, and the New York Review of Books. In her review of “Conspiracy” for the Three Fold, she writes, “There is an eroticism to the privileging of touch in ‘Conspiracy,’ in the sense that evokes an embodied, irrepressible, creative vitality.” COMPLETA starts at 2 p.m. on Aug. 6 at the National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. nga.gov. Free, registration required. —Shantay Robinson

Ongoing: Captured: Plants and Place at Green Spring Gardens Horticultural Center

If the outside world seems uninviting during these dog days of summer, an exhibit of botanical and garden photographs at Alexandria’s Green Spring Gardens Horticultural Center offers a worthy respite to see the outside while enjoying the comforts of air-conditioning. The exhibit includes more than 50 black and white and color works by a dozen local photographers—Rebecca Doran, Barry Dunn, Tana Ebbole, Stacy Smith Evans, Leslie Kiefer, Leslie Landerkin, Linda McKnight, Jane Podesta, Van Pulley, Susan Saudek, Barbara Southworth, and Sarah Strickler—most of which look unseasonably, and appealingly, cool to the August-in-D.C. eye. The exhibit includes a wide array of landscapes, notably Dunn’s black and white image of a marsh punctuated by a riot of vertical stems. But most of the standouts are close-ups: Strickler’s translucent photograph of botanical detritus encased in ice; Kiefer’s monochromatic image of a fuzzy dandelion being blown apart; Saudek’s image of curvaceous leaves in an unexpected shade of blue while her abstract image of thick leaves suggests an erotic Georgia O’Keeffe. Meanwhile, Dunn’s image appears to be of leaves covered by short, fuzzy hairs—or is it just the artifact of a grainy photographic technique? Captured: Plants and Place runs through Sept. 17 at Green Spring Gardens Horticultural Center, 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria. Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4:30 p.m. fairfaxcounty.gov. Free. —Louis Jacobson

Ongoing: Mythic Futures at the Nicholson Project, throughout D.C.

Mythic Futures, a four-part public art mural by Antoine Williams for the Nicholson Project, is currently on view in all four quadrants of the District. The Nicholson Project, an organization meant to specifically amplify artists of color voices by engaging in community-based programming, has been active since 2019. Through Mythic Futures, Williams depicts an Afrofuturist narrative of four mythological deities—Ayana (the southeast mural), Tuma (the southwest mural), Emem (the northeast mural), and Waseme (the northwest mural)—who are meant to offer guidance similar to the deities of African-based spiritual belief systems such as Yoruba, Voodoo, and Santeria. But unlike these traditional spiritual belief systems, Williams’ deities combat particularly contemporary issues impacting African diasporic people to foster fruitful futures. The murals offer mythological expressions of liberatory forces, including intersectionality, culture, progression, and self-care. Each mural is accompanied with a soundtrack written by Williams and performed by Jade Young, which can be accessed through smartphones using a QR code, communicating its meaning and bringing the murals to life. Williams’ work typically exists at the intersection of speculative fiction, monster theory, critical Black studies, and Afro-surrealism. He is the recipient of several awards and grants, including the Harpo Foundation Grant Award and Joan Mitchell Award for Painters and Sculptors. Mythic Futures is on view through Dec. 10. Ayana, the Mythic Being of Culture, can be seen at the Nicholson Project, 2310 Nicholson St. SE. Emem, the Mythic Being of Self Care, sits at 800 9th St. SW; Waseme, the Mythic Being of Intersectionality, sits at 2106 Vermont Ave. NW; and Tuma, the Mythic Being of Progression, lives at 1333 H St. NE. thenicholsonproject.org. Free. —Shantay Robinson