April in the Neighborhood: Primary election candidate forums; ‘Yoga on Connecticut’; 3 flavors of jazz

Watch a DC politics miniseries. Over three nights in April, candidates for DC mayor, DC delegate and at-large Council member will appear on stage at St. Johns College High School’s Frana Auditorium (2607 Military Road NW). The candidate forums will also be streamed on Zoom (links below). Each forum will start at 7 p.m.:

April 7: Mayoral candidates
April 8: Delegate to the House of Representatives candidates
April 9: At-large DC Council candidates

The hosts, the Chevy Chase Community Association and Shepherd Park Citizens Association, are inviting people to send their questions for the candidates to [email protected]. In-person attendees will also be able to submit notecards with questions.

On April 17, the Black Business Task Force is hosting another forum for mayoral and at-large Council candidates. That event is at the UDC law school (4340 Connecticut Avenue).

Strike a yoga pose. A partnership between Van Ness Main Street and Yoga on Connecticut is bringing a rotating cast of yoga instructors to the VNMS office (4340 Connecticut). The pop-up, donation-based classes are raising money for the NW Community Food pantry, and are being held most Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. There are new signup links each week, so look for them in @yogaonconnecticut’s Instagram bio.

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Forest Hills Connection is an editorially independent program of Van Ness Main Street.

April is for cleaning up area parks and streams. Rock Creek Conservancy’s month-long Extreme Cleanup tackles trash at sites Rock Creek Park and in the Rock Creek watershed. This April 4 cleanup tackles litter in the wooded area between 36th Street and Nebraska Avenue, and behind the Politics and Prose parking lot.

A new series of Forest Hills Park cleanups also begin in April. The next event sponsored by the Good Clean Fun initiative is April 25, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Jazzing up the neighborhood. Jazz enthusiasts and musicians of all ages and experience are first invited to Levine Music’s JazzFest.. The free events on April 11 and 12 include a jam session and a concert.

The jazz festival on April 27 is all about the big band sound. The Calvin Jones BIG BAND Jazz Festival at the UDC Theater of the Arts features ensembles from UDC, Howard University and the University of Maryland.

And on April 30, a jazz concert on Hillwood’s Lunar Lawn is inspired by the museum’s exhibition on time and timepieces. The featured performer is bandleader, pianist, composer and singer Amy K. Bormet.

A new farmers market season begins. The UDC Van Ness Farmers Market returns to the Student Center plaza on April 25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The vendors will be there every Saturday through mid-December.

New Morning Farm Market at Sheridan School is on a spring-growing hiatus this month, and will return May 2.