March in the Neighborhood: Welcome spring with dance, song, shopping, and planting

Spring has been welcoming us with the first tree blossoms emerging, and daffodils and other perennials bursting from the warming earth. Isn’t it time we welcomed it back?

The Rock Creek Morris Women at Peirce Mill in 2019.

On March 16th from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., the Rock Creek Morris Women will be doing just that. These dancers will be at Peirce Mill – with bells on – to celebrate the new season the old English way. Arrive early or stay later for free public tours of the mill. It’ll be open and staffed by interpreters from noon to 4 p.m.

A new shop-small-and-local tradition is getting under way in Van Ness on March 9th: the Second Saturdays pop-up artisans market and book sale. Used book and music seller Carpe Librum is setting up shop outside of 4340 Connecticut Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and as many as eight local creators will be inside. Van Ness Main Street is doing this on the second Saturday every month through November. Here’s where you can find information on the March 9th vendors, and sign up for updates.

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

Levine Music’s Community Sing, a popular monthly event that is exactly what the name describes, returns to the school’s Upton Street campus on March 13th. You don’t need to be an experienced singer to lend your voice to the chorus. All Levine asks is that you RSVP.

At 12:30 p.m. on March 12th, UDC’s Jazz Studies program is inviting the music-loving community to its campus for a talk and performance by Christie Dashiell, with pianist Janelle Gill and vocalist Alison Crockett.

And those spring daffodils, tulips and other bulbs that we’re beginning to enjoy? Many of the blooms popping up along Connecticut Avenue were planted by volunteers last fall. The spring planting program, organized by Van Ness Main Street and Master Gardener Kathy Sykes, begins the last weekend of the month. Here’s where you’ll find the volunteers working that Saturday and Sunday, and how to sign up.