Maruka Presents Soyini George Jewelry Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Saturday, June 19 from 1 to 5 pm), Maruka Gallery and Boutique celebrates another local designer with a wine and cheese opening. This month’s featured artist is D.C. Fashion Designer Soyini George of Yinibini.

Soyini displays an artistic brilliance with handmade jewelry fashioned from a variety of materials. With wood, seeds, sterling silver, semi-precious stones and beads, she creates colorful, eye-catching pieces to romance and enjoy. Quick, fun, and fabulously affordable jewerlry ranges from $12 to $60 and is perfect for the summer.




Maruka Gallery and Boutique
1300 Ninth Street NW
(corner of 9th and N streets NW)
202.745.1881
info@marukadc.com

From SMS: Groundbreaking at Ninth and P Monday

From Shaw Main Streets comes news of a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday at Ninth and P Streets, NW (as well as some exciting other development forecasts for later this year):

On Monday, June 14, 2010, at 1:00 PM at the northeast corner of 9th and P Streets, NW, a groundbreaking ceremony will be held for a new mixed use development that will include the first DC location of Silver Spring, MD renowned Mandalay Restaurant. DC Councilmembers Jack Evans (Ward 2) and Kwame R. Brown (At Large) and Bridget Bean, District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Washington Metropolitan District Office will help turn the first ceremonial shovels of dirt at 1501 9th Street, NW. The 6,000 square foot building, developed by the District's Inle Development, replaces a former used car that the community considered a blight for decades. Residential units will be located above the restaurant.

The 1501 9th Street, NW groundbreaking will be the first construction start for a new mixed use structure in central Shaw's Shaw Main Streets commercial district since before the 2008 financial crisis. The construction and restaurant build out are being financed by a $2.1 million U.S. Small Business Administration loan.

"This will kick off a series of major groundbreakings this year," advises Alexander M. Padro, executive director of Shaw Main Streets and Shaw Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. "The Howard Theatre and Renaissance Project (formerly Broadcast Center One) will break ground in late August, CityMarket at O will break ground in September, and the Marriott Marquis Convention Center should follow in the fall.

Aung Myint, owner of the Mandalay DC restaurant, will be traveling to Burmaafter the groundbreaking to consult with Burmese chefs on the new restaurant's menu. "I'm taking 60 recipes with me," Myint reports, and "and will be working with these chefs to refine them, adding and taking out herbs and ingredients, to come up with a final list of 30 dishes that will be available nowhere else in the DC metropolitan area." A business partner will be also be traveling to Burma at the same time to refine the cocktail menu

Mandalay DC is scheduled to open in Summer 2011.

Commemorative T-shirts will be distributed at the event, which will also feature a buffet of Burmese specialties from the current Mandalay Restaurant, a Washingtonian magazine Cheap Eats favorite for many years.

I am SO excited to see this development come to fruition!

From SMS: Shaw Garden Tour Tomorrow

From Shaw Main Streets comes word of an exciting set of events tomorrow in Shaw, including the first-ever (free) garden tour:

DC Main Streets First Saturday in Shaw on June 5, 2010, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, will offer a variety of reasons to spend a few hours “Where DC Comes Together.”


The first-ever Shaw Garden Tour will present 18 yards in front of rowhouses and condo buildings that will stimulate your imagination for upgrading your own green space. In addition, Lisa Caprioglio of Aldertree Garden (www.aldertreegarden.com), an expert on using native plants and avoiding invasive species who has appeared on NPR, will present a workshop on making better plant choices and your decisions’ impact on the environment. Tour maps will be available at Old City Green (www.oldcitygreen.com), 902 N Street, NW, and the native plants session will take place there at 3:30 PM.

At 9th and N Streets, Jazz brassist Chalman Holmes will serenade passersby throughout the event. And the studio of Bill Warrell, former chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, will be hosting a showing of the artist’s paintings of jazz musicians.

The annual Lower 9th Street Open House will also take place at the same time, with businesses offering free samples of their food and beverages. Baked goods, beer, wine and spirits, Ethiopian food, coffee, and much more will be sampled, and free fresh popcorn will be available at Old City Green throughout the event. A highlight will be the art-filled DC GuestHouse (www.dcguesthouse.com), an award-winning bed and breakfast. Pick up event passports at Old City Green and return there for the drawing for prizes donated by participating businesses at 5:00 PM.

So come stroll the streets of Shaw, get some tips for greening, groove to smooth sounds, shop, and feast your eyes, tastebuds, and mind at DC Main Streets First Saturday in Shaw, June 5, 2010.

DC Main Streets First Saturday is sponsored by DC Main Streets, ReSTORE DC, the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development, and the Historical Society of Washington, DC.

Anna Davis's The Dance Before the Kill at Long View Gallery

Tonight (June 3, 2010), Long View Gallery celebrates the opening of its latest show, “The Dance Before the Kill” by Anna Davis. The opening reception is from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The show will be up through July 1.


From the press release:

In her first exhibition of works on paper, "The Dance before the Kill," Anna Davis continues her investigation of contemporary feminist concerns, this time giving form to the sexually charged hostilities that pervade both gender and race relations. Her new series adopts the pasodoble as a metaphor to contrast the fluidity of women's roles with the aggressive, prideful posturing of paternal authority. She has translated the gray Frocasian characters of her vibrant mixed media paintings into starkly black and white illustrations of entangled bodies. An amalgam of the terms Afro and Caucasian, Frocasian designates the artist's construal of Primitivism's noble savage and symbolizes the utopist aim to transcend identity politics. On paper, however, these figures lose their uniformly gray hue, underscoring their cultural oppositions and differences in appearance. This tension, along with the flamboyant garb and histrionic facial expression of each character, evokes the dance of the bullfight.

Long View Gallery
1234 Ninth Street, Northwest
202.232.4788