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Sliders served at last year's ZooFari benefit. Image courtesy of the National Zoo.

Tuesday, May 15 Words, Earth and Aloha

Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month with the American Indian Museum’s May Daily Films. Words, Earth and Aloha celebrates the Hawaiian composers who flourished between the 1870s and the 1920s, exploring the poetry and play of Hawaiian lyrics as well as the places and features of the natural world that inspired songs that remain beloved to this day. The documentary is directed by Eddie Kamae, the legendary Hawaiian musician who helped launch the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Free. 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. American Indian Museum.

Wednesday, May 16 merengue and méringue

Discover and celebrate the common traditions of island neighbors Haiti and the Dominican Republic at the Haiti-Dominican Friendship Concert, sponsored by the African Art Museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Enriquillo Tejada y Los Clarinetes Mágicos open with a set of Dominican merengues, boleros, and Latin jazz. Tabou Combo closes the show with konpa and Haitian méringue music. Both merengue and méringue stem from a blend of African and European roots. Free. 6:30 p.m. Baird Auditorium, Natural History Museum.

Thursday, May 17 ZooFari

Expand your palate at ZooFari, which has been called “D.C.’s foodie event of the year.” More than 100 of the best eateries in the area are participating this year. Add the fine wines, fabulous entertainment, animal demonstrations, and a great silent auction, all in the wild setting of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and you have the recipe for a delicious evening. All proceeds will benefit the Zoo’s research, conservation and education programs. $150 for members, $200 for nonmembers. 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. National Zoo.

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

"Breaking Rank" by Drew Cameron (Army) and Drew Matott (Civilian) is made from the artists' shredded uniforms. Image courtesy of the Combat Paper Project – Collaboration with Green Door Studio, Burlington, VT.

Young veterans returning from the prolonged and grueling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding new ways to cope with post-military life and they’re doing it through art. As a part of the Arts, Military + Healing: A Collaborative Initiative (AMH), veterans and civilians at the forefront of this movement are joining with national cultural institutions, art schools and the military community to create something new out of the destruction of war—catharsis through art therapy.

Starting Sunday, this week-long event offers five free workshops that will give military members of the AMH and their families a chance to work with art therapists, veteran and established artists. The program stretches across seven locations including the Library of Congress, National Air and Space Museum, and George Mason University.  Events include exhibitions, a film screening of Heather Courtney’s acclaimed documentary Where Soldiers Come From and a  performance by modern dance company, DancEthos, that demonstrates the healing benefits of the arts.

Shannon Maxwell, co-founder of the SEMPERMAX Support Fund, will make opening remarks to highlight the importance of arts as therapy. Her husband, Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, USMC (retired), received a traumatic brain injury from a mortar attack in Iraq. The ceremony will be held at the Fly Marines! The Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation: 1912-2012 exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum, and will also include a presentation on the history of arts in the military.

A collection of veteran-made artwork will be on display at the Corcoran Gallery featuring works from the Combat Paper Project, a cathartic program that allows veterans to make paper-bound books of poetry and paintings from their shredded uniforms. Their motto “Make Paper not War,” rings true in the veteran-made artwork created from the destruction of their military garb.  Award-winning New York Times photographer, Joao Silva, will also share his experiences working in combat zones. He has experienced the danger first-hand having survived a land mine explosion covering the war in Afghanistan.

Arts, Military + Healing  will take place May 13-18. Free. For more information on the events, the mission, the participants and for a complete schedule visit www.artsandmilitary.org for specific times.

If you haven’t yet seen Doug Aitken’s SONG 1, the nightly spectacle projected on the Hirshhorn‘s outside walls, tonight might be the right time to swing by. For one night only, the museum is shutting off the speakers and replacing the normal soundtrack with a special live concert called “SONG 1: A Happening.” Against the backdrop of the 360-film loop, the bands Geologist, High Places, No Age, duo Tim McAfee Lewis and Leo Gallo, sound collagist Oneohtrix Point Never, and minimalist composer Nicolas Jaar, all covering the Flamingos’ song “I Only Have Eyes For You.” Tickets are $25 here.

If you feel like doing some pre-concert homework, Aitken himself will be holding a free symposium at noon and 3 p.m. with several art and music experts, including Sasha Frere-Jones, Geeta Dayal, Dean Kuipers, Zabet Patterson, and Aaron Betsky.

Can’t make it tonight? The project, originally meant to conclude tomorrow, has been extended to May 20.

Celebrate Suma Qamaña, or living well, at the Bolivian Festival this Saturday. Image courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Friday, May 11 Gardening for Healthy Living

April showers bring May flowers, as the saying goes. But what about vegetables and herbs? This Friday, join in the annual Garden Fest, inspired by the First Lady’s national initiative for healthy living “Let’s Move,” which seeks to educate children and parents about how gardens can play a role in healthy living. Activities include music, dancing, yoga, tai chi, mural painting, demonstrations and tons of information on vegetable gardening, healthy trees and lawns—even orchid growing. Visitors can also participate in Let’s Move! with Smithsonian Gardens, a scavenger hunt in the gardens. Free. 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday. Enid A. Haupt Garden south of the Castle, Smithsonian Gardens.

Saturday, May 12 Bolivian Festival: Living Well

Bolivia is proud to celebrate its cultures, history and heritage with a weekend of exciting presentations and programs at the Bolivian Festival: Suma Qamaña, Living Well. The festivities include a Baroque music concert, contemporary and traditional dance groups, storytelling, folk music, demonstrating artists, food and fun for the whole family. Come and meet many proud Bolivians sharing their wisdom, knowledge and culture in living well. Free. 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. NMAI Potomac Atrium and other museum locations. National Museum of the American Indian.

Sunday, May 13 Steinway series with Mendelssohn Piano Trio

For Mother’s Day this Sunday, take the woman you love most to see a spectacular performance by the Mendelssohn Piano Trio. For the past fifteen years the group—violinist Peter Sirotin , pianist Ya-Ting Chang and cellist Fiona Thompson—has thrilled audiences in the U.S. and abroad, performing with a rare combination of powerful individual talent and tight-knit collaboration. Returning for their fourth annual Mother’s Day concert, they will perform piano trios by Haydn, Brahms, and Ravel. Free, tickets distributed beginning at 2:30 p.m. Concert at 3:00 p.m. McEvoy Auditorium, American Art Museum.

Lalla Essaydi's photographic series challenge traditional ideas of femininity and empowerment. Image courtesy of the African Art Museum.

Every year, Lalla Essaydi returns to her childhood home in Morocco: a huge, elaborate house that dates back to the 16th century. Occasionally, she goes alone. More often, she brings 20 to 40 of her female relatives with her.

“There’s a part of that house that was for men only,” Essaydi, who now lives in New York, explains. “And there is a specific room that women were not allowed in, or were only allowed when there were no men in the house.”

Essaydi and her sisters inhabit this room for weeks at a time. She does a rather odd thing there. She covers the space in white cloth and starts writing Arabic calligraphy in henna on the cloth, on the walls and even on the women, in a free flowing to the conversation and activities around her. At the end, she shoots photographs of the women. But to Essaydi, the period of setting up the room and being with women is equally, if not more important, than the end result. It is an act of rebellion against the world she grew up in: filling a room that traditionally belonged to men with the words of women, written in calligraphy, an art that was historically restricted to men, and in henna, a dye used to adorn women.

“The experience is so intense that the photography doesn’t really convey what happens during these times,” Essaydi says.

In an effort to capture this experience, the exhibition “Lalla Essaydi: Revisions,” on view at the National Museum of African Art starting today through February 24, brings together Essaydi’s well-known photographic series with her rarely exhibited paintings and a video of the process. It is the first solo exhibition to bring together these different media. The labyrinth of rooms, which includes an intimate section filled with silk-screened images of women (some of them naked) on banners, encourages the visitor not simply to observe, but to engage with the art.

Essaydi covers her models with henna calligraphy. Image courtesy of the African Art Museum.

“It really does invite you into the space,” says guest curator Kinsey Katchka. “It creates a dialogue between the viewer and the artist and the model, too, who is included in the conversations during the process.”

Other photographic series on display are Essaydi’s “Harem” series, shot in Marrakesh’s historic Dar el Basha Palace, and “Les Femmes du Maroc,” in which she recreates 19th-century European and American paintings of an Orientalist fantasy. Her paintings, too, emphasize the disconnect between the Western romance of the East and the reality of women’s lives.

Essaydi is well-positioned to scrutinize these different cultural perspectives. Born in a Moroccan harem, she has lived in Paris, Saudi Arabia, Boston and New York. Her father had four wives and her mother covered her face with a veil for most of her life. After experiencing the harem life firsthand, Essaydi is troubled by the Western depiction of a sexual space full of nude, lounging women.

“I can hardly imagine my mother and sisters walking naked all day long in our home,” she says. “Because our religion allows the man to marry more than one woman, the harem is just a large house full of children. And everyone has chores in the house.”

But now, the Western fantasy has flipped. “Instead of seeing the women as naked and walking in a harem, now we see women as being oppressed and covered, without any say, and she’s not doing anything about it,” she says, emphasizing the assumption that oppressed women passively accept their fate without resistance. “I am one of the millions of women who are fighting every day for their life and their identity.”

But Essaydi’s meditations on objectified Arab women always seem to return to that childhood home. At the heart of her work is her dialog with her cousins and sisters, as they struggle to make sense of their own upbringing and identity.

“It really changes our life,” she says. “Every year we get together and talk about things that were taboo in our culture. We meet even if I’m not shooting. It’s just become a tradition.”

“Lalla Essaydi: Revisions” opens today at the African Art Museum and runs through February 24, 2013.