Spend a fun day at Forest Hills Park. Thanks to Van Ness Main Street’s Good Clean Fun initiative, June 6 is a day of service, community and music, with an all-ages cleanup, a community toy swap, and a performance by Grammy-nominated children’s music artist Mamá Elena. Create a work of art at Peirce Mill. Artists have been inspired by […]
May in the Neighborhood: Embassy tours, pop-up artisans market, historic trades festival, Hillwood movies
Van Ness Main Street celebrates 10 years. The organization’s May 2 anniversary party is “A Taste of Van Ness Main Street.” Sample some local restaurant specialties while enjoying music performed by Tracey Cutler and the UDC JAZZAlive Trio. The event also honors neighborhood business leaders and volunteers. Local embassies are opening to the public. May 2 is Passport DC’s […]
Volunteer in the neighborhood: Park cleanups, Van Ness Main Street events, NW Community Food, Peirce Mill
Want to give back to the community? Opportunities abound for service-minded people, including students in need of community service hours. Pitch in for spring cleaning at local parks. Van Ness Main Street’s Good Clean Fun initiative is hosting an April 25 cleanup at Forest Hills Park. All ages can pitch in. Just make sure you let a […]
‘It’s important to get the mill running again’: Group works to restart Peirce Mill’s milling operations after an August breakdown
The 2026 milling season at Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park typically begins in April. But this month, the grinding stones remain idled while devices critical to the mill’s operation are in the shop. Two water recirculating pumps were installed during the major restoration project that allowed the historic mill to reopen to the public […]
March in the Neighborhood: Timepieces and the science of time; Welcoming spring with cleanups and dance
Time, as we experience it, is a forward-moving phenomenon. For most of the past century, physicists have also understood time in that way, positing that “the first arrow of time” only increases disorder, or entropy, and there is no backtracking. That, however, does not explain how the complex systems of the universe are able to […]
February in the Neighborhood: Enter the ‘Magical World’ of a local artist; Levine Music’s 50th and UDC’s 175th anniversaries
Enter “The Magical World” of a Forest Hills-based artist: The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center is featuring Danziger’s work in two exhibits opening February 7th. “The Magical World of Joan Danziger” is a career retrospective and her largest exhibit to date, featuring more than 100 pieces spanning six decades. Its focus is […]
January in the Neighborhood: Solo shows for local photographers; Sing to and free the trees; Fort DeRussy hikes
Forest Hills-based photographers have shows opening this month. Today through February, selected photos by Scott Lassman, a “lens-based artist,” are on display at the IA&A at Hillyer Gallery in Dupont Circle. Hillyer is also hosting a conversation with Lassman on January 10th at 1 p.m. One year ago this month, neighbor and wildlife photographer David […]
December in the Neighborhood: Van Ness holiday market; 1906 ‘Christmas Boycott’ book talk; Katrina documentary screening; Holidays at Hillwood
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina: UDC digital media program is hosting a special screening of National Geographic’s “Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time,” a documentary series that recently won a Critics Choice Award for Best Historical Documentary. The screening of the third episode will take place Tuesday, December 2nd at 10 a.m. at the UDC Theater […]
The government shutdown and the national park next door
In case you did not know, many Rock Creek Park facilities are closed, and services such as trash pickup are suspended for the shutdown’s duration. That means the Rock Creek Nature Center and Peirce Mill are not welcoming visitors, and Friends of Peirce Mill does not yet know whether its Mid-Atlantic Grain Fair will be […]
October in the Neighborhood: Spooky Movie Nights, ‘Celebrate VNMS,’ pollinator plantings, Halloween events
Friday nights are a little spooky this month. Van Ness Main Street and several local sponsors are hosting three Spooky Movie Nights at the UDC amphitheater (next to the Theater of the Arts and the UDC tennis courts). Tickets are free (and linked below) and carryout picnics are encouraged. October 3: Beetlejuice October 10: E.T. […]