Get Out: Patch Picks for the Weekend of Jan. 27
This weekend: French art, a dark family comedy, living history at a plantation museum, a Chinese New Year Parade and an exciting meet-the-author event at Politics & Prose.
Author Discussion and Book Signing: Elizabeth Dowling Taylor at Politics & Prose
Where/When: Politics & Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC), Sunday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m.
Why Go: The former director of interpretation at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and director of education at James Madison's Montpelier discusses and signs her new book, A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons.
Price: Free.
Living History: Winter on the Plantation at Montpelier Mansion
Where/When: Montpelier Mansion (9650 Muirkirk Rd., Laurel, MD), Saturday, Jan. 28, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Why Go: Learn about what it was like to live and work on a plantation in the winter at the Montpelier Mansion.
Price: $5 (reservations suggested).
Where/When: Chinatown, at H Street NW between 6th and 8th streets NW, in Washington, DC; Sunday, Jan. 29, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Why Go: Celebrate the arrival of another year on the lunar calendar with the Washington, DC, Chinese community. The annual parade through Chinatown begins at 2 p.m. and features dragon floats, marching bands, music and dancing. A giant firecracker will be set off at 3:45 p.m.
Price: Free.
Where/When: Cleveland Park Branch Library (3310 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC), Saturday, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m.
Why Go: Field Trip Theatre presents the reading of a play that explores what it means to be a family. "Stopgap" takes place in suburban Chino Hills, CA, during the state’s most recent divide—the aftermath of Proposition 8.
After being offered a job teaching math at his alma mater, Robert moves from Boston to his white picket fence hometown in California, bringing with him his boyfriend (and later, husband) David. After a glass of wine at a birthday brunch, May, Robert’s childhood best friend, announces that she is going to turkey baste her way into pregnancy; earlier that same day, David tells Robert that he wants to adopt.
This dark comedy delves into the lives of six individuals living just on the outskirts of their white-picket-fence surroundings, trying to find their own definition of family in this hetero-normative community they call "home."
Price: Free (donations accepted at event website).
Gallery Opening: Nineteenth-Century French Galleries of the National Gallery of Art
Where/When: National Gallery of Art, West Building (located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th streets at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC). This gallery will open for the first time in two years on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. The National Gallery of art is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Why Go: Following a two-year renovation, the galleries devoted to impressionism and post-impressionism in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art will reopen to the public on Jan. 28, 2012. Among the greatest collections in the world of paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, the Gallery's later 19th-century French paintings will return to public view in a freshly-conceived installation design.
A variety of French films and concerts, gallery talks and lectures will be held this weekend at the museum in honor of the re-opening of the Nineteenth-Century French Galleries. Visit the website for a full list of events.
Price: Free.
