Against a backdrop of Quilt blocks commemorating artists, The NAMES Performers present work showcasing community responses to HIV/AIDS in theater, music, dance, and design. Photo by Willa Friedman, Smithsonian Institution

Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more.

George Clinton and crew brought the crowd to their feet on the opening night of the Festival. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Smithsonian Institution.

Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more.

Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150

Morrill Performing Arts Center

11:00 AM—12:00 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

12:00 PM—1:00 PM            University of Texas–Pan American Mariachi Aztlán

1:00 PM—2:00 PM            University of Hawai’i Ensemble

2:00 PM—3:00 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band

3:00 PM—4:00 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

4:00 PM—5:00 PM            University of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu
5:00 PM—5:30 PM            University of Texas–Pan American Mariachi Aztl

Commons Discussion

11:00 AM—11:45 AM            The Next 150 Years: Expanding Community Engagement in the Future

11:45 AM—12:30 PM            Reinventing Agriculture: Sustainable Crops of the Future

12:30 PM—1:15 PM            Opening Doors: Civil Rights Struggles

1:15 PM—2:00 PM    Lifelong Learning: Mississippi Hills Cultural Tourism

2:00 PM—2:45 PM    The Land-grant Tradition: LGUs as Smithsonian Affiliates

2:45 PM—3:30 PM            Research Into Action: SIMA Program

3:30 PM—4:15 PM            Transforming Communities: Forging Partnerships Through Music

4:15 PM—5:00 PM            Building on Tradition: Folklore Programs at Universities

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            Sustainable Solutions: Feed the World, Power the Planet

Smithsonian U

11:00 AM—11:30 AM           Ongoing activities

11:30 AM—12:00 PM       What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

12:00 PM—12:30 PM        The Legacy of Grant Wood’s Murals at Iowa State University

12:30 PM—1:00 PM            Engaging Immigrant Communities through Leadership

1:00 PM—1:30 PM             Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project: Revitalizing Northwest Native Food Culture

1:30 PM—2:00 PM            Art Science Fusion

2:00 PM—2:30 PM            Design and Extension

2:30 PM—3:00 PM            How Songs Find Their Meanings: Que Sera, Sera

3:00 PM—3:30 PM            21st Century Workforce Development: From Infancy to Innovation

3:30 PM—4:00 PM            Disability, Creativity and Student Life

4:00 PM—4:30 PM            What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

4:30 PM—5:00 PM            Americanization of Surimi

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            Sustainable Biofuels

Test Kitchen

11:00 AM—11:45 PM                    Native American Northwest Cooking

12:00 PM—12:45 PM            Vermont Maple Syrup

1:00 PM—1:45 PM            Traditional Hawaiian Cooking

2:00 PM—2:45 PM            Traditional Indiana Cooking

3:00 PM—3:45 PM              Specialty Crop Cooking: Asparagus Soup

4:00 PM—5:30 PM            Dairy Doings: Goat’s Milk Ice Cream and Cheese

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Red Hot Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Rock Creek Singers

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            The NAMES Performers

12:30 PM—1:15 PM            The NAMES Performers

1:15 PM—2:00 PM                        The NAMES Performers

2:00 PM—2:45 PM                        Spoken Word

2:45 PM—3:30 PM                        The NAMES Performers

3:30 PM—4:15 PM                        The NAMES Performers

4:15 PM—5:00 PM            Spoken Word

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        The NAMES Performers

Giving Voice Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        HIV/AIDS Through Spoken Word

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            The Quilt on Tour: The First Displays

12:30 PM—1:15 PM               Art as Medicine

1:15 PM—2:00 PM                        Quilt Rituals

2:00 PM—2:45 PM                        Material Culture in a Digital Age

2:45 PM—3:30 PM                        Community Responses to AIDS

3:30 PM—4:15 PM                        Market Street Stories

4:15 PM—5:00 PM                  Science and Public Health

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        The Quilt Volunteer Experience

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River

Panorama Room

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                Hip Hop: Christylez Bacon

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            Rap: AB the Pro

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            Gospel: Galilee Baptist Church Choir

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Da’ Originalz

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Gospel: Chosen

3:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Latino Music and Dance: Metro Mambo

Good Hope and Naylor Corner

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Gospel: Chosen

11:45 PM—12:30 PM                  Da’ Originalz

12:30 PM—1:30 PM                   Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Hip-Hop Workshop: Head Roc

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Murals in the Community: Albus Cavus and Others

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C and Christylez Bacon

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Gospel Singing: Galilee Baptist Church Choir

Douglass Hall

11:00 AM—12:30 PM                        Ongoing activities

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            Tattoo Workshop: Coco Bayron

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Tattoo Workshop: Coco Bayron

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Ongoing activities

Evening Concerts

Morrill Performing Arts Center

6:00 PM—8:00 PM            Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert: Celebrating Worth Long’s Legacy

Panorama Room

6:00 PM—7:30 PM            An Evening of Song with Rock Creek Singers and In Process . . .

An artist works on a mural installation in the “Citified” program. Photo by Walter Larrimore, Smithsonian Institution.

Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more.

Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150

Morrill Performing Arts Center

11:00 AM—12:00 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band

12:00 PM—1:00 PM           University of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu

1:00 PM—2:00 PM            University of Texas–Pan American Mariachi Aztlán

2:00 PM—3:00 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

3:00 PM—4:00 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band

4:00 PM—5:30 PM            University of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu and Tuahine Troupe

Commons Discussion

11:00 AM—11:45 AM            Research Into Action: Public Universities at Work

11:45 AM—12:30 PM            Reinventing Agriculture: Old Roots, New Shoots

12:30 PM—1:15 PM            The Land-grant Tradition: Campus Traditions

1:15 PM—2:00 PM    Building on Tradition: Musical Traditions at Universities

2:00 PM—2:45 PM            The Next 150 Years: 4-H and Extension in the Future

2:45 PM—3:30 PM            Opening Doors: Diversity

3:30 PM—4:15 PM            Sustainable Solutions: Waste Not, Want Not!

4:15 PM—5:00 PM            Lifelong Learning: Mississippi Hills Cultural Tourism

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            Transforming Communities: Technology and Accessibility 

Smithsonian U

11:00 AM—11:30 AM            Sustainable Biofuels

11:30 AM—12:00 PM    One Hundred Years of Food Safety

12:00 PM—12:30 PM    Living Light Solar House: Powered by the Sun

12:30 PM—1:00 PM            Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project: Revitalizing Northwest Native Food Culture

1:00 PM—1:30 PM    21st Century Workforce Development: From Infancy to Innovation

1:30 PM—2:00 PM            Forty Years of Land Grant Food Safety Education

2:00 PM—2:30 PM            History of Morrill Act, Land Grant Universities, Smith Lever Act and Hatch Act

2:30 PM—3:00 PM            How Songs Find Their Meanings: Que Sera, Sera

3:00 PM—3:30 PM            What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

3:30 PM—4:00 PM            Disability, Creativity and Student Life

4:00 PM—4:30 PM            Art Science Fusion

4:30 PM—5:00 PM            The Story of New France, the Other Colonial America

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

Test Kitchen

11:00 AM—11:45 PM            Food Explorations: Homemade Wonton with Dipping Sauce

12:00 PM—12:45 PM            Olive Oil Presentation

1:00 PM—1:45 PM            Food Explorations: Homemade Wonton with Dipping Sauce

2:00 PM—2:45 PM            Vermont Maple Syrup

3:00 PM—3:45 PM              Cooking with Goat Meat: Goat Stew

4:00 PM—5:30 PM            From the Farmer’s Market

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Red Hot Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        The NAMES Performers

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            The NAMES Performers

12:30 PM—1:15 PM            The NAMES Performers

1:15 PM—2:00 PM                        Spoken Word

2:00 PM—2:45 PM                        The NAMES Performers

2:45 PM —3:30 PM                        The NAMES Performers

3:30 PM—4:15 PM                        The NAMES Performers

4:15 PM—5:00 PM                          Spoken Word

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        A Conversation about Arts and Advocacy

Giving Voice Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        HIV/AIDS Through Spoken Word

11:45 PM— 12:30 PM                Call My Name

12:30 PM —1:15 PM                    Normal Heart Conversation

1:15 PM —2:00 PM                        Art as Advocacy, Art as Medicine

2:00 PM—2:45 PM                        Seeing HIV/AIDS Through Photography

2:45 PM—3:30 PM                        Positive Living

3:30 PM —4:15 PM                        Global Voices

4:15 PM —5:00 PM             Science, Health, and Art

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        Reflections on The Quilt Display

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River

Panorama Room

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Rap: AB the Pro

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            Line Dance & Workshop: Iverson Mall Line Dancers

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            East of the River Boys & Girls Steelband

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Beat Ya Feet Dance: Da Originalz

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        East of the River Boys & Girls Steelband

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        East of the River Boys & Girls Steelband

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Beat Ya Feet Dance: Da Originalz

Good Hope and Naylor Corner

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Women of the Cloth & Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

11:45 PM—12:30 PM            What is Soul & Funk: Faycez U Know

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            Hip Hop and Rap: Christylez Bacon & AB the Pro

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Dance in the Community: Iverson Mall Line Dancers

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Rap: AB the Pro

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Hip Hop: Christylez Bacon

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Murals in the Community: Jay Coleman & muralists

Douglass Hall

11:00 AM—12:30 PM                        Ongoing activities

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Ongoing activities

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Ongoing activities

Evening Concerts

Morrill Performing Arts Center

6:00 PM—8:00 PM            Quetzal and La Sardina de Naiguatá

Panorama Room

6:00 PM—8:00 PM            The Music of Monticello and the Blue Ridge

Last year’s opening ceremony. Image courtesy of Folklife Festival.

Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more on June 27-July 1 and July 4-8.

Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150

Morrill Performing Arts Center

11:00 AM—12:00 PM         University of Texas–Pan American Mariachi Aztlán

12:00 PM—1:00 PM           University of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu

1:00 PM—2:00 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

2:00 PM—3:00 PM            University of Hawai’i Ensemble

3:00 PM—4:00 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band

4:00 PM—5:00 PM            University of Texas–Pan American Mariachi Aztlán

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            University of Hawai’i Ensemble

Commons Discussion

11:00 AM—11:45 AM            Opening Doors: Mississippi Hills Cultural Tourism

11:45 AM—12:30 PM            Reinventing Agriculture: Gardens and Healthy Communities

12:30 PM—1:15 PM            The Next 150 Years: Students and Classrooms of the Future

1:15 PM—2:00 PM             Lifelong Learning: From the Margins to the Center: Blending Disability Studies and Access to Education

2:00 PM—2:45 PM            Sustainable Solutions: Rural and Urban

2:45 PM—3:30 PM            Building on Tradition: Indiana Quilters “Bed Turning”

3:30 PM—4:15 PM            The Land Grant Tradition: Sports and Tradition

4:15 PM—5:00 PM            Transforming Communities: Water Resources

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            Research into Action: Science and Art Join Forces

Smithsonian U

11:00 AM—11:30 AM            Sustainable Biofuels

11:30 AM—12:00 PM         The Father of USDA and America’s Land Grant Colleges: The Life and Times of Senator Justin Smith Morrill

12:00 PM—12:30 PM            Imagi*Nation

12:30 PM—1:00 PM            The Forest Service’s Role Transforming Communities and 1890 Schools

1:00 PM—1:30 PM    The Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project: Revitalizing Northwest Native Food Culture

1:30 PM—2:00 PM            The Mission and History of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service

2:00 PM—2:30 PM            History of Morrill Act, Land Grant Universities, Smith Lever Act and Hatch Act

2:30 PM—3:00 PM            How Songs Find Their Meanings: Que Sera, Sera

3:00 PM—3:30 PM            Art Science Fusion

3:30 PM—4:00 PM            The DEFs of Access to Education

4:00 PM—4:30 PM            What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

4:30 PM—5:00 PM            Moving Food along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution

5:00 PM—5:30 PM            A Brief History of the University of Illinois Rehabilitation Education Program

Test Kitchen

11:00 AM—11:45 PM            Missouri Regional Cooking

12:00 PM—12:45 PM            Specialty Crop Cooking: Kale Salad

1:00 PM—1:45 PM            Vermont Maple Syrup

2:00 PM—2:45 PM            Food Explorations: Whole Wheat Meyer Lemon Pancakes

3:00 PM—3:45 PM            Food and Medicine: Juice Therapy

4:00 PM—5:30 PM            Healthy and Sustainable Eating

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Red Hot Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        The NAMES Performers

11:45 PM           — 12:30 PM            The NAMES Performers

12:30 PM         —1:15 PM                The NAMES Performers

1:15 PM            —2:00 PM               Spoken Word

2:00 PM            —2:45 PM              The NAMES Performers

2:45 PM            —3:30 PM             The NAMES Performers

3:30 PM            —4:15 PM             Spoken Word

4:15 PM—5:00 PM                         The NAMES Performers

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        A Conversation about Arts and Advocacy

Giving Voice Stage

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Quilt Rituals

11:45 PM—            12:30 PM            HIV/AIDS Through Spoken Word

12:30 PM—1:15 PM                          The Quilt Volunteer Experience

1:15 PM            —2:00 PM                Material Culture in a Digital Age

2:00 PM            —2:45 PM              Healing Arts and Care Giving

2:45 PM            —3:30 PM             Art as Advocacy, Art as Medicine

3:30 PM            —4:15 PM              The Quilt on Tour: The First Displays

4:15 PM—5:00 PM                         Market Street Stories

5:00 PM—5:30 PM                        Stories from The Quilt

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River

Panorama Room

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Hand Dancing: Smooth & Eazy

11:45 PM—            12:30 PM            Hip-Hop: Head Roc

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            African Heritage Dancers & Drummers

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Hand Dancing: Smooth & Eazy

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        East of the River Boys & Girls Steelband

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Hip Hop: Christylez Bacon

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        African Heritage Dancers & Drummers

Good Hope and Naylor Corner

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Hip Hop: Christylez Bacon

11:45 PM—            12:30 PM            Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            East of the River Boys & Girls Steelband

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        Hip-Hop Workshop: Head Roc

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        African Heritage Dancers & Drummers

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        The Power of Quilting

Douglass Hall

11:00 AM—11:45 AM                        Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

11:45 PM—            12:30 PM            Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

12:30 PM—1:30 PM            Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

1:30 PM—2:30 PM                        DC Street Style AJ ‘N Company

2:30 PM—3:30 PM                        Quilting: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

3:30 PM—4:30 PM                        DC Street Style AJ ‘N Company

4:30 PM—5:30 PM                        Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

Evening Concert

Morrill Performing Arts Center

6:00 PM—7:30 PM            Azerbaijani Mugham Music featuring Imamyar Hasanov and Pezhham Akhavass

Sarah Rhodes’ photographs capture a movement to revive aboriginal traditions. Image by Sarah Rhodes.

For generations, every aboriginal infant born in southeastern Australia was swaddled in a possum skin pelt covered in symbols explaining their family ties, their lands, and their place in the larger community. The cloak, worn every day and slept in every night, grew with the child; over the years, more possum pelts, loaded with descriptions of new stories and new relationships, were attached to that first panel. And when the person died, the cloak became a burial shroud, depicting a full life story.

This vital tradition disappeared in the late 19th century, as British colonization of Australia led to the demise of aboriginal culture. Only five original cloaks have been preserved—including one stored in the Natural History Museum.

But in the past decade, modern aboriginal Australians have been pushing a cultural revival. The possum skin cloak, with its thorough mapping of different aboriginal groups’ languages, clans, terrain, spirituality and history, has come to symbolize the movement.

When the Sydney-based photographer, Sarah Rhodes, first stumbled on an online image of a modern possum skin cloak while working at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, the cloak seized her imagination.

“I went home that night and had a dream that I was photographing this opera singer backstage at the Sydney Opera House,” Rhodes recalls. “She was wearing this cloak in this very theatrical way. And when I woke up the next morning, I thought it was a sign that I needed to do something.”

A year later, she quit her job at the museum and became a full-time photographer, chasing the story of the cloak all over the continent. Rhodes met Vicki Couzens, a leader in the aboriginal pride movement. In 2006, she organized an aboriginal heritage event that took place at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in which tribal elders wore newly crafted possum skin cloaks. Since the games, cloak-making workshops and ceremonies have popped up in many communities. In an essay about her first encounter with an original cloak, Couzens describes its visceral power:

“It seemed, in that moment, that the Old People were standing there beside and around us. I felt as if the illusionary veils of time, space and place had thinned, dissipated and I could reach through and feel them, touch and see the Old People.”

The possum skin cloak at the Natural History Museum was collected near the Hunter River in 1840. Image by Sarah Rhodes.

With Couzens’ help, Rhodes embarked on a photographic series, “Home/On Country,” portraits of elders wrapped in possum skin cloaks much like the “Old People” of the past. At first, she photographed the elders in their houses. But she soon realized the incongruity of the cloak in a modern home. She started photographing the elders out in the wilderness, where the cloak seemed fully in its element. She notes the difference in the face of one elder, Esther Kirby, in each setting (see above). “Look at her face, she’s so calm [outside]. But in this room she looks so tense,” she says. “These pictures made me realize how difficult it is to negotiate two cultures.”

Rhodes traveled to Washington last week after visiting a possum skin cloak workshop in Newcastle, New South Wales, the region where the Smithsonian cloak was first discovered. The Newcastle workshop is creating a replica, but has no detailed images of the original designs. So Rhodes photographed the  cloak at the Natural History Museum in all its intricacy. Soon, she’ll return to Newcastle to document the labor-intensive process of recreating the cloak. Though the craft of the cloak interests her, at heart Rhodes wants to show what the project means for the community.

“It’s not really about the cloak. It’s a vehicle for the whole of knowledge reclamation,” Rhodes explains.

Indeed, the artifact is more than just a garment; it’s a pictographic dictionary, a geographical map, an autobiography, and, crucially, an education tool. The workshops, according to Rhodes, are packed with children learning about their history. After centuries of stigma, the younger generations will grow up immersed in their culture and see it as a source of pride.

As an example, Rhodes offers Vicki Couzens’ own family story. Couzens’ father was raised in a European mission, which discouraged his native culture. Couzens herself faced racism growing up and was made to feel ashamed of her heritage. When she started the possum skin cloak revival project, she taught her daughter everything.

Now, her daughter has made a possum skin cloak for her newborn son. Rhodes marvels, “And now her son will grow up like his great-great-grandfather did.”

Participants from the Campus and Community delegation from University of Hawaii take a dinner break. Image courtesy of the Folklife Festival.

The 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival kicks off today and we’re here to help you take full advantage of the many performances, talks, crafts, and demos that are taking over the Mall for the next two weeks. Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more on June 27-July 1 and July 4-8. Take part in a quilting workshop, discover new ideas about dinosaurs, and listen to master storytellers. At night, “bring back the funk” with George Clinton, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Dumpstaphunk.

Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150

Morrill Performing Arts Center

11:00 AM            12:00 PM            Festival Opening Ceremony

12:00 PM            1:00 PM            Univ. of Hawai’i Ensemble

1:00 PM            2:00 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

2:00 PM            3:00 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band

3:00 PM            4:00 PM            Univ. of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu

4:00 PM            5:00 PM            U.T.-Pan Am Mariachi Aztlán

5:00 PM            5:30 PM            Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

Commons Discussion

12:00 PM            12:30 PM            Land-grant University Tradition: Research, Learning, and Engagement

12:30 PM            1:15 PM            Reinventing Ag.: What’s New at the USDA?

1:15 PM            2:00 PM            Transforming Communities: Local, Regional and Global

2:00 PM            2:45 PM            Lifelong Learning: Beyond the Classroom

2:45 PM            3:30 PM            Building on Tradition: Mississippi Hills Cultural Tourism

3:30 PM            4:15 PM            Research Into Action: High Tech to Everyday

4:15 PM            5:00 PM            Sustainable Solutions: Sustainability by Design

5:00 PM            5:30 PM            The Next 150 Years: Campus of the Future

Smithsonian U

12:00 PM            12:30 PM            The Father of USDA and America’s Land Grant Colleges: The Life and Times of

Senator Justin Smith Morrill

12:30 PM            1:00 PM            Teaching Dinosaur Science Using Unthinkable Methods

1:00 PM            1:30 PM            Empathic Design Research Strategy

1:30 PM            2:00 PM            Expanding Educational and Career Opportunities for Students with Severe Physical

Disabilities: The Illinois Model

2:00 PM            2:30 PM            The United Soybean Board Research and Partnerships with the Land-grant Universities

2:30 PM            3:00 PM            How Songs Find Their Meanings: Que Sera, Sera

3:00 PM            3:30 PM            A Brief History of the University of Illinois Rehabilitation Education Program

3:30 PM            4:00 PM            What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

4:00 PM            4:30 PM            The Story of New France, the Other Colonial America

4:30 PM            5:00 PM            Teaching Dinosaur Science Using Unthinkable Methods

5:00 PM            5:30 PM            Art Science Fusion

Test Kitchen

12:00 PM            12:45 PM            Food Safe Families

1:00 PM            1:45 PM            Cooking with Buffalo: Buffalo Snacks – Wasna; Buffalo Mini Pizzas

2:00 PM            2:45 PM            Olive Oil Presentation

3:00 PM            3:45 PM            Vermont Maple Syrup

4:00 PM            5:30 PM            Food as Medicine: Posole with Mushrooms; Rose Hip Jam; Rosehip Raspberry Fizz

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Red Hot Stage

12:00 PM            12:45 PM            The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: The Start of the AIDS Epidemic

12:45 PM            1:30 PM            The NAMES Project Performance Troupe

1:30 PM            2:15 PM            The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: Imagining The Quilt

2:15 PM            3:00 PM            Spoken Word

3:00 PM            3:45 PM            The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: The Last One

3:45 PM            5:30 PM            “Sometimes I Cry” by Sheryl Lee Ralph

Giving Voice Stage

12:00 PM            12:45 PM            History of The Quilt and The NAMES Project Foundation

12:45 PM            1:30 PM            HIV/AIDS Through Spoken Word

1:30 PM            2:15 PM            Sheryl Lee Ralph

2:15 PM            3:00 PM            The Last One

3:00 PM            3:45 PM            Quilting Workshops and Panel Makers

3:45 PM            4:30 PM            Community Responses to AIDS

4:30 PM            5:00 PM            Stories from The Quilt

5:00 PM            5:30 PM            Reflections on The Quilt Display

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River

Panorama Room

12:00 PM            1:30 PM            Soul & Funk: Faycez U Know

1:30 PM            2:30 PM            Hip Hop: Head Roc

2:30 PM            3:30 PM            Da Originalz: Beat Ya Feet

3:30 PM            4:30 PM            Soul & Funk: Faycez U Know

Good Hope and Naylor Corner

12:00 PM            1:30 PM            Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

1:30 PM            2:30 PM            Quilting Workshop: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

2:30 PM            3:30 PM            Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

3:30 PM            4:30 PM            Hip Hop: Head Roc

4:30 PM            5:30 PM            Da Originalz

Douglass Hall

12:00 PM            1:30 PM            Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

1:30 PM            2:30 PM            Ongoing Activities

2:30 PM            3:30 PM            Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

3:30 PM            4:30 PM            Quilting Workshop: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

4:30 PM            5:30 PM            Ongoing Activities

Evening Concerts

Morrill Performing Arts Center

6:00 PM            7:30 PM            West Virginia University Steel Band, featuring Ellie Mannette

Panorama Room

6:00 PM            9:30 PM            Bring Back the Funk, featuring George Clinton, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Dumpstaphunk

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which will be unfolded at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Image courtesy of the Folklife Festival.

Tuesday, June 26 This Is Your Life: Duke Kahanamoku

Gear up for the Olympics with the American Indian Museum’s June Daily Films, which wrap up this week. In 1957, the TV show This Is Your Life hosted native Hawaiian swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku, who won the 100 meter race in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and later became a world famous surfer, to discuss his incredible journey to the Olympics and his legacy. Don’t forget to visit the related exhibition, “Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics.” Free. 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. American Indian Museum.

Wednesday, June 27 Bring Back the Funk

Get funkadelic with George Clinton, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk at the opening concert of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. These music legends are taking over the Mall to celebrate the 2012 groundbreaking of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (which will house Clinton’s iconic Mothership in its “Musical Crossroads” exhibition). Discover how funk has influenced hip hop, soul and rock—and get up and dance! Free. 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. National Mall.

Thursday, June 28 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Since 1967, the Folklife Festival has drawn more than one million people each year to celebrate community arts and culture. Meet musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks and storytellers who come to the Mall from all over the world. This year’s festival explores three themes: Campus and Community: 150 years of land-grant universities and the USDA; Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River and Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Check the Folklife Festival website for a full schedule of events. Free. Events run today through July 1 and again July 4 through 8. National Mall.

Contemporary artist Gavin Jantjes evokes South African cave paintings in this untitled work. Image courtesy of the African Art Museum.

Upon entering the African Art Museum’s new exhibition, “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” for the first time, Johnnetta B. Cole, director of the African Art Museum, was abruptly transported back to the evenings of her childhood in Jacksonville, Florida.

“I would go through a ritual each and every night that we were allowed to stay up a little late and play outside,” she recalled at the exhibition press preview. “I would look up to the sky and say something I suspect little girls and boys in multiple languages around the world say: Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”

This universal wonder inspired by the night sky is at the heart of “African Cosmos,” which opened yesterday and will be on view through December 9. The opening coincides with a recent announcement that South Africa and eight other African partners will host the radio telescope-based Square Kilometre Project, which will “literally probe the early origins of the universe,” according to Derek Hanekom, the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology in South Africa.

The cavernous gallery houses a hundred artifacts of “cultural astronomy,” as curator Christine Mullen Kreamer puts it, in the form of cosmos-related African artwork from ancient Egypt and Nubia to present day. The diverse body of work breaks away from the Western and scientific conception of the universe to tell a different narrative of cosmic understanding. This narrative encompasses many different interpretations of the sky over time, including the Yoruba depiction of the universe as a lidded vessel, burial paintings of the Egyptian sky goddess Nut, and a 1990 painting by South African artist Gavin Jantjes linking the continent’s staple foods like yams, cassava, barley and rice with the movement of the river constellation Eridanus, which appears before the Nile floods.

A cornerstone of the exhibition is a video installation by South African artist Karel Nel as part of COSMOS, a Caltech astronomy project mapping a two-degree square area of the universe. The video zooms in towards the center of the universe and back out again, as a chorus of African crickets chirps. Nel was struck by how the crickets that would sing outside his studio at night sounded like “deep space.” The chirps are then played backwards, transformed into eerie, alien-like clicks.

Why is this Afro-centric narrative of the universe so important? Primarily, the exhibition wants visitors to “understand Africa’s role in the history of knowledge over time,” says curator Mullen Kreamer.

This reclaimed role in building knowledge is especially relevant now, in light of the decision to install the bulk of the Square Kilometre Project in South Africa. The army of radio telescopes will trace faint radio signals to map the evolution of the universe and determine the positions of the nearest billion galaxies. Most of the 3,000 telescopes will be installed in the semi-arid regions of South Africa, where there is little interference from cell phone towers or TV broadcast. Hanekom, who was present at the opening, emphasized the significance of the move.

“It is an expression of confidence in African scientific capabilities such as we’ve never seen before,” Hanekom says. “This [project] is going to be a catalyst. It will take us from a continent seen to be riddled with poverty and underdevelopment to a continent that will have a major offer to make to global knowledge.”

“African Cosmos” can help contextualize this project within the long tradition of African sky-watching. The museum also hopes it will open the minds of children who may feel intimidated by technology. “Science, engineering and technology for some communities has become something so foreign, so complicated; something that young children simply do not want to relate to,” Director Cole says. But as she well knows, every child can relate to that instinctive desire to wish upon a star.

African Cosmos: Stellar Art is on display through December 9.

Image courtesy of Mike Crosby, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Does this little guy look like a Nando to you? How about a Loki?

It’s time to name the National Zoo’s baby black howler monkey, who’s turned into “one of the Small Mammal House’s loudest and most charismatic critters” since his birth on March 22, according to the Zoo’s press release. Beginning today, June 18, the Zoo is hosting a poll on its Facebook page to name the baby. You can choose one of four names the keepers felt reflected the baby’s personality.

The name choices and their explanations are below:

• Sumaq: This name in the Quechua language means “beautiful.” The baby’s golden locks and chocolate brown eyes prompted the keepers to suggest a name befitting a handsome boy.
• Orejas: The baby may blend in perfectly with 5-year-old mother Chula’s fur, but one feature (or two) makes him stick out: his large ears. For this reason, keepers chose the name Orejas, a Spanish word meaning “ears.”
• Nando: Short for Fernando, “Nando” is a popular name meaning “courageous.” At first, the baby was shy and clung tightly to his mother. In the last few weeks, however, he has grown increasingly independent and active, swinging by his tail and walking from branch to branch. Keepers expect he will become more daring over the next few months.
• Loki: “Loki” is the Norse mythological god of mischief. Inquisitive from a young age, the baby howler explores his environment by touching and tasting everything around him. He has even tried to steal mom’s food.

Voting will close at noon Friday, June 22—exactly three months after the howler monkey’s birth. The Zoo will announce the winning name on Facebook that afternoon.

If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, you can head over to the Small Mammals House to greet the new baby and his parents, Chula and Pele.

In association with the new exhibition, “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts," the African Art Museum hosts a talk by astronomist-artist Karel Nel this week. Image courtesy of the African Art Museum.

Tuesday, June 19 The Art of Political Advertising

From 30-second spots to 30-minute infomercials, presidential campaigns have long relied on television as the best way to communicate with the American public. Trace the genre’s evolution from early ads to the state of today’s industry with Robert Mann, author of Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the Ad That Changed American Politics, and political consultant Mark Putnam, who wrote and produced Barack Obama’s 2008 30-minute TV special American Stories, American Solutions. Stick around afterwards for a moderated discussion led by Alicia Kolar Prevost of American University’s Campaign Management. $35 for general admission, $30 for members. 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.

Wednesday, June 20 Luce Design with Jackie Flanagan

DC fashion designer Jackie Flanagan kicks off the American Art Museum’s new summer series showcasing local designers. Flanagan, who owns the DC boutique Nana, will talk about her design process, her desire to create ethically-made clothing, her support of other local designers, and how she is inspired by color and vintage and modern designs. Free. 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Luce Foundation Center, American Art Museum.

Thursday, June 21 Karel Nel

Star-gazing will never be the same after this talk by South African artist Karel Nel, who explores the intersection of arts, spirituality and astronomy. In 2004, Nel became an artist in residence for COSMOS, an astronomy project that is mapping a two-degree square area of the sky. Joining the conversation is Nick Scoville, the principal investigator of the Hubble Space Telescope imaging of COSMOS. Free. 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. African Art Museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Tour the former Old Patent Office, now the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Tuesday, June 12 Temple of Invention Tour

The building that houses the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery once served a very different function, as the Patent Office Building, the nation’s “temple to the industrial arts.” Built in 1868, the building is one of the country’s finest examples of Greek Revival architecture. Discover its rich history on a tour led by curator Charles Robertson, who will also discuss the patent exhibition “Inventing a Better Mousetrap: Patent Models from the Rothschild Collection.” Free. 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Meet in the F Street Lobby, American Art Museum.

Wednesday, June 13  A Healthy Future in Renewable Energy

How do we balance sustainable energy production with responsible environmental stewardship? In this evening seminar, Philippe Fauchet, director of the University of Rochester’s Energy Research Initiative, grapples with one of the biggest challenges facing the world population. Learn about global energy use and the potential of alternative energy sources like solar and wind power. $40 for general admission, $30 for members. 6:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.

Thursday, June 14 Painting with Maya-Mam

Local Mayan artist Ubaldo Sánchez (Maya-Mam) uses this colorful family-friendly painting workshop to explain Mayan culture and art. Sánchez comes from a family of artists from Concepcion Chiquirichapa, Guatemala, whose projects represent the rich, crafts-based art of Guatemala here in the United States. Sánchez’s work includes painted pottery, sculpture, silkscreening, and painting. His 2009 painting of Barak Obama, New Dawn, was selected to represent Virginia students in the White House. Free. Repeats daily through June 17 at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. American Indian Museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Ray Bradbury died Tuesday evening at the age of 91.

As Venus crossed between the sun and the earth on Tuesday evening for the last time until 2117, Ray Bradbury, one of the greatest minds in science fiction, passed with it. At 91 years old, Bradbury died in Los Angeles after a prolonged illness.

Bradbury was best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, which imagined a dystopian America where firemen burned books, and The Martian Chronicles, a series of vignettes about life on Mars. Through bizarre settings, Bradbury explored human characters and their reactions to the unknown, according to planetary geologist Jim Zimbelman of the Air and Space Museum.

“His stories always make you think about what it means to be human,” Zimbelman says. This was rare in a genre that deals with fantastic worlds and futuristic technologies.

“Isaac Asimov, for example, had a strong biology background, so he would tend to talk about human physiology in many of his stories,” Zimbelman says. “I would put Bradbury in the realm of psychology. He was more interested in how the human mind works in these different environments and processed the information.”

Bradbury was famously suspicious of how technology could “overwhelm the human spirit,” as Zimbelman says. His stories uncannily predicted developments that are now routine. The oppressive society in Fahrenheit 451, for example, uses automated banking stations similar to ATMs and a communication device called a “digital wall,” a term rendered familiar by Facebook.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel in 2000, Bradbury proclaimed that the Internet “is bound to fail…All this electronic stuff is remote, removed from you. The Internet is just a big scam the computer companies cooked up to make you get a computer into every home.”

This Luddite-esque sentiment might be surprising coming from such a respected science fiction writer, but Zimbelman argues that technological advancement was never Bradbury’s interest. “It’s not that he avoided the science, but technology was not the driver in his stories. It was the tool,” says Zimbelman. “His work didn’t so much as stimulate me to study science as it broadened my appreciation of what could be out there, beyond the limitations of what we understood.”

Above all, Bradbury’s plots were about “figuring out how to be consistent with your own internal beliefs in whatever situation you were thrown into.”

This crucial idea may be the reason his work has become a staple of high school English curricula. “Bradbury’s record will be a treasure for the rest of time,” Zimbelman says. “All I can do is try to encourage the young people who aren’t as familiar with his name to not think of it as old fogey literature but to look at it with fresh eyes and realize that no one else had written quite like he had when he started.”

A replica of Jim Thorpe's Olympic medal from 1912 is on display at the American Indian Museum. Image courtesy of the American Indian Museum.

A hundred years ago at the Stockholm Olympics, Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox tribe swept the events of the pentathlon and decathlon, prompting King Gustav V of Sweden to name him “the greatest athlete in the world.”

The International Olympic Committee later stripped Thorpe of his two gold medals after learning that he had briefly played professional baseball, violating the rule banning professional athletes from Olympic competition. In spite of the scandal, the king’s title stuck and Thorpe became a legend of American athleticism. In 1983, the Committee presented replicas of his medals to his family as an acknowledgement of his achievement.

These replica medals, en route to this year’s London Olympic Games, are making a pit stop at the American Indian Museum through July 9 as part of the exhibition, Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics, which showcases native athletes who have fought their way to Olympic glory since the Stockholm games.

And there have been quite a few. Along with Thorpe’s medals, the exhibition displays the silver medal won by Thorpe’s teammate, Hawaiian swim champion Duke Kahanamoku in 1912, and the gold medal won by Billy Mills of the Oglala Lakota nation in the 1964 10,000 meter race—the only time an American has ever won that race. Besides these standouts, many other indigenous athletes left their own marks on the Games: Andrew Sockalexis (Penobscot), who placed fourth in the marathon in 1912; Lewis Tewanima (Hopi), who set the American record for 10,000 meters that same year, before Billy Mills broke it; Clarence “Taffy” Abel (Ojibwe), who won a silver medal as part of the 1924 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team and later became the first U.S.-born player in the National Hockey League; Ellison Myers Brown (Narragansett), who ran the marathon at the 1936 Olympics; Sharon and Shirley Firth (Gwich’in), twin sisters who competed in the 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 Games in cross-country skiing; Theoren Fleury (Métis/Cree), who won a gold medal in 2002 in ice hockey, and Carolyn Darbyshire-McRorie (Métis), who won a silver medal in curling in 2010—among many more.

Why did so many Native Americans excel in the Games? Curator Jim Adams attributes their success to three geographic traditions of native athleticism. First, the Carlisle Indian School, a boarding school founded to assimilate young Native Americans, boasted an exceptional athletic program, which nurtured Jim Thorpe’s talent and sent him to Stockholm. Secondly, the sport of running has long been considered a religious practice by tribes in the southwest and northern woodlands of North America. Third, Hawaiian beach culture and surf tradition bred water sport superstars like Duke Kahanamoku.

Kahanamoku’s gold in the Stockholm 100-meter freestyle and silver in the relay was “a statement of native identity,” says Adams. Kahanamoku collected three gold medals and two silvers over his career, triggering a decades-long “Hawaiian dynasty,” as Adams calls it, in Olympic swim and surf contests.

The Carlisle School and its athletic program shut down shortly after Thorpe’s medals were stripped, making it much harder for native athletes to reach the Olympics. “Without that infrastructure and coverage of the simple expense of travel, that shut off a very important resource,” Adams says. “The barriers to participating in the Olympics, just the financial ones alone, are pretty steep.” Native interest in the Games flagged as a result.

But they got a jolt of excitement 48 years after Thorpe, when, Billy Mills broke the American record set by Tewanima. As Mills sprinted to the finish line, a TV sports analyst started screaming, “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!” The dramatic moment helped reinvigorate native interest in the Games, according to Adams. “Billy Mills has inspired several new generations of athletes,” he says.

This summer, there are several native Olympic hopefuls who are likely to compete, including swimmer Mary Killman (Potowatomie) Canadian boxer Mary Spencer (Ojibwe) and runner Alvina Begay (Navajo). Besides celebrating the past, the exhibition also tracks in real time the journeys of these athletes to London through a news feed on their website.

 ”Best in the World: Native Athletes in the Olympics” is on view at the National Museum of the American Indian through September 3, 2012.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presents her red dress and other memorabilia at the American History Museum's joint naturalization-donation ceremony.

Addressing a dozen freshly minted citizens at the American History Museum on May 24, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright couldn’t help reflecting on her own journey to America. “I remember being very excited but also a little scared, because I didn’t know how I would be received in this new land,” she said. “I worried that the differences in the way I spoke and acted would leave me in America, but not really part of it.”

The twelve citizens, hailing from Afghanistan, Mexico, Ethiopia, Pakistan, among others, had just taken the Oath of Allegiance a few minutes earlier. Albright, who left her native Czechoslovakia as a child, became a U.S. citizen in 1957 while attending Wellesley College. Her fears of being a misfit never came true; she went on to become the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and, in January 1997, she became the first female Secretary of State and the highest ranking woman to ever serve in the U.S. government. “I only hope my heels can fill his shoes,” she famously said at the announcement that she would replace her predecessor, Warren Christopher. As Secretary of State, she influenced U.S. foreign policy throughout President Bill Clinton’s second term, tackling some of the toughest issues of our times, including ethnic cleansing, the war in the Balkans and tensions with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Last week, she received the highest civilian honor in the nation, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Obama.

After sharing her own story, Albright urged the new citizens to treasure their citizenship document, because it represents “not just a change in legal status, but a license to a dream.”

The ceremony doubled as a donation gathering, as Albright formally gifted several of her personal items to the museum, including the red wool dress she wore on the day of her appointment in 1996, her United Nations peacekeepers helmet and her briefcase. Albright, famed for using jewelry as diplomatic tools, also donated a few of her signature brooches. Succeeded by two women, Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton, Albright marveled at how quickly things have changed by quoting her youngest granddaughter: “What’s the big deal about Grandma Maddie being Secretary of State? Only girls are Secretary of State!”

The ceremony also unveiled the American History Museum’s new website for immigrants, Preparing for the Oath, an interactive tutorial for the civics portion of the U.S. citizenship test. With sample tests, vocabulary lists, videos and 15 different topic categories, the site exploits the museum’s vast collections to provide a context and narrative of American history.

Albright emphasized how much America owes to those who became Americans by choice. “We need the vitality and renewal that comes from fresh energy and ideas,” she said. “Because of this ceremony, America will be better tomorrow than it was yesterday.”

Tuesday is the last chance of the century to see Venus pass between the sun and the earth.

Tuesday, June 5 Transit of Venus

Don’t miss your last chance this century to see Venus pass between the sun and the earth. Since it’s not safe to stare directly into the sun, watch the transit through one of the Air and Space Museum‘s special solar telescopes. Inside the museum, experts Dr. David DeVorkin and Dr. Jim Zimbelman will guide curious visitors through this rare event. Free. 6:00 p.m. Air and Space Museum.

Wednesday, June 6 Living Portraits

Portraitist Alexa Meade, acclaimed for her “living paintings,” takes over the Kogod Courtyard to paint two live models into background sets. Enjoy specialty cocktails and take your own portraits against Meade’s painted scenes. Find Ann M. Shumard, curator of the exhibition In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio, to chat about both Warnecke’s and Meade’s boundary-breaking portraits. Free. 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. National Portrait Gallery.

Thursday, June 7 The Artist as Dissident: Ai WeiWei

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei, who currently has exhibitions at both the Hirshhorn Museum and the Sackler Gallery, is both a uniquely innovative artist and an outspoken political advocate who has tested the limits of freedom of expression in contemporary China. Despite frequent arrests, he continues to create and to send out his message of the interrelationship of art and politics. Join Michelle Wang, assistant professor of art history at Georgetown University, in an exploration of dominant themes in Ai’s work. $20 for members, $30 for general admission. 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.