What Secrets do the Streets Beneath Downtown Hold?
In 2003, the staff of the short-lived Washington, DC City Museum, won a grant from the Humanities Council to produce a short film on the archaeological history of the 7th Street Downtown neighborhood the new institution would occupy when it opened at the Carnegie Library on Mt. Vernon Square. The film, narrated by Okolo Thomas-Toure, introduced its audience to the ordinary people who lived in downtown Washington from the city's founding to the early 20th century when the area became known as a red light and nightlife destination.
A series of vignettes introduce the neighborhood's immigration history, medical history, architectural history, and entertainment history. Check out the film and tell us what's missing! How would you alter or add to the historical narrative of bustling Downtown Washington?
Join us for This Exciting New TED Conference Celebrating Creativity in Washington, DC!
On Saturday, March 24, THEARC in Ward 8 will be awash in exciting new ideas thanks to a local TED event entitled The Creative City: Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation. TEDxWDC is dedicated to promoting communication between the creative economic clusters in the city of Washington, DC!
THEARC DC is located at 1901 Mississippi Ave, SE, Washington, DC 20020
The ticket price includes:
A full day of incredible speakers from the DC creative community
Lunch provided by Busboys & Poets
Cocktail Reception and live entertainment after the event
Coffee and pastries throughout the day
Shuttle to and from the Congress Heights Metro Station
For information on discounted block ticket purchases please email TEDxWDC@gmail.com.
The Humanities Council has gone green, streamlined, digital, and efficient! Our current grant cycle will be the first ever here at the HCWDC to use our new online grants system. The online application will make things easier for us at the office, our reviewers, and also for prospective grantees. Gone are the days of assembling large quantities of paper, multiplying them, and then toting them to the HCWDC office by 5pm on the day of the deadline, now all materials can be written, saved, returned to, attached, uploaded, sent, and verified online!
And then click "Create a New Account" to start the registration process
The deadlines and important dates for Cycle I 2012 are:
Feb 10th - All prospective applicants for a Major Grant ($1500 to $5000) must submit a preliminary application which will be reviewed by our Director of Grants. The Director will suggest improvement or updates, and decide which prospective grantees will be invited to apply.
March 9th - All applications for small grants (up to $1500) due. Grantees invited to apply for the Major Grant must submit their final proposals.
April 7th - Grant review panel meets to make final funding decisions.
Kick off Black History Month With a Healthy Dose of Humanities From Around DC and Beyond!
Like most scholars, I was skeptical about Wikipedia when Jimmy Wales first launched the site back in 2001. The notion that unvetted volunteers cooperatively contributing to an online encyclopedia might produce a reference work of any real value seemed at best dubious—and, more likely, laughably absurd. Surely it would be riddled with errors. Surely its coverage would be ridiculously patchy. Surely it would lack the breadth, depth, and nuance of more traditional reference works like the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica.
To some, Anacostia can also include a cluster of surrounding neighborhoods, including Fairlawn to the northeast and Barry Farm -- sometimes called Barry Farms -- to the southwest. To others, Anacostia is just, well, Anacostia, the neighborhood with the big chair.
Known as the “Father of Black History,” Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one’s divine right of freedom. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia and bachelor and master’s degrees from th University of Chicago in just a few years. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard University.
To start the workshop off with a shared understanding of the DPLA[Digital Public Library of America] initiative, Maura Marx, Director of the DPLA Secretariat, gave a brief presentation covering the events and ideas informing the development of the DPLA. The project was born from a relatively straightfoward need: to digitize materials, both historical and current, and make them widely available to the public. In 2010, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation promised to offer funding to any group that could work toward that goal, and the DPLA arose shortly thereafter as a sort of "network operation center" to articulate and plan such a project.
On the second night of the Slam!, the poets of Beers Elementary School put on an impassioned performance with lines such as "We'll eliminate all distractions and change our ashes"; "Go to school, you can still be cool"; and "We can all make change for the better."
Dr. Ira Berlin, author and professor of history at the University of Maryland, will discuss the connections between slavery and the building of the university.
In reality, the Tuskegee Airmen placed a premium on discipline, precision, order and military bearing. After all, they were under the command of Benjamin O. Davis Jr., a black man from the District, whose rank as an Air Force general and whose education — 35th out of 276 at West Point, class of 1936 — was awe inspiring.
As a middle or high school student you have had plenty of experiences to shape your ideas and perspectives about cultural and global issues in our city, from your travels, or where you come from. Wouldn’t it be great if other students could learn what you know? With One World Education’s Culture & Global Issues Writing Program you have a chance to become a published writer – whose writing will be read by thousands of other students.
Professor A. Peter Bailey was a
founding member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity which was founded
by Malcolm X in 1964 after his separation from the Nation of Islam. He
was editor of the OAAU's newsletter and was in the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 when Brother Malcolm was assassinated. He was a pall-bearer
at his funeral.
Bailey, once a strong supporter of the
mainstream civil rights movement, has said: "My awareness of Brother
Malcolm was strictly as the bogeyman that you read about in the newspapers...All of
that changed in the summer of 1962 when I heard him speak for the first
time."
Bailey knew, worked with, and supported
Brother Malcolm before joining Johnson Publishing's New York office
where he wrote for Ebony and Jet. Mr. Bailey was the 2010 Visiting Playwright
in residence in The Department of Theatre Art at Howard University.
Our signature think-and-drink event is back starting Tuesday, February 21st and then every Tuesday after until March 13. The Humanitini is a relaxed discussion between a panel of experts and a happy hour audience on topics of timely interest or importance. Topics will include:
The final two programs will take place at Axum Restaurant and Bar at 1934 9th Street, NW!
Caps, Nats, Wiz, and 'Skins: Finding Community Identity Through Sports - We'll take a humanities spin on local sports fandom. Our panelists and the audience will explore the District's unique sports identity. Can a city with a large transient population attract dedicated home-team supporters? Confirmed panelists include Brian Tinsman from The Redskins Blog, Kyle S. Yeldell from National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, Howard University Soccer Head Coach, Michael Lawrence, American football tight end Leonard Stephens, and Edwin Henderson from the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. The panel will be moderated by Amy Saidman of SpeakeasyDC. This Humanitini will also feature Demont “Peekaso” Pinder, local artist well known as being the art director for JIVE recording artist Raheem DeVaughn. He will paint a sports themed piece during the panel discussion and it will be auctioned off at the end of the program.
Occupy DC: What is the Price of Freedom? - This program will take a street-level look at the Occupy DC protest, examining its origins and goals as well as the effect it has had on local businesses and city agencies. Confirmed panelists include community activist and lobbyist Erik Jones, and Sinclair Skinner, Legba Carrefour, and Megan Brett from Occupy DC Media team. This panel will be moderated by Andy Shallal, founder of Busboys and Poets.
The events are completely free and open to the public (donations accepted).
A Dose of Humanities Happenings and Happeneds for the DC Humanist
An initiative to connect the NSO and its musicians to the residents of Washington, D.C., with performances by the full orchestra and small ensembles in untraditional spaces and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
On Nov. 12, the Baha’is of Washington D.C. and their friends will celebrate the 194th anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith. This celebration at the Josephine Butler Parks Center in the nation’s capital will join with similar celebrations in over 100,000 localities around the world.
Thanks to a couple readers for sending the great photos of the Howard Theater sign going up right now. Howard Theater is located at 7th and T St, NW and plans on reopening in April 2012.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is proud to announce the 29th Annual Larry Neal Writers’ Competition, which commemorates the artistic legacy and vision of cultural understanding of Larry Neal, a renowned author, academic and former Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
The competition honors the artistic excellence of emerging and established DC writers with monetary awards for submissions in poetry, essays, dramatic writing and short story. Awards will be presented at the 29th Annual Larry Neal Writers’ Awards Ceremony on May 4, 2012, in partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
This blog is about uncovering stories that have long been forgotten. I walk by buildings every day, and it’s hard not to imagine what happened there fifty or a hundred years ago. I want to learn about lost neighborhoods like Swampoodle and Murder Bay, find out who lived in my neighborhood when Woodrow Wilson was in the White House, and understand the fear of seeing confederate flags ominously flying within site of the Capitol, across the river in secessionist Virginia.
