Art All Night Comes to Shaw on Sept. 29
Shaw will glow when the Art All Night festival returns to Shaw for the seventh time, on the night of Saturday, Sept. 29, starting at 7 p.m. and continuing until 3 a.m. the following morning. The overnight arts festival presents live music and dance performances, art and lighting installations, an outdoor art market, projections, fire dancers, body and face painting, live painting, opportunities to create your own art, a parade and much more.
The theme of this year’s festival is #ShawGlows, with glow-in-the-dark art and giveaways, black light art and fashion, neon art installations, fire-bubble makers and dancers, a glow-in-the-dark dance party and even glow-in-the-dark cocktails at selected bars and restaurants. Inspired by Paris’ Nuit Blanche festival and presented by Shaw Main Streets, this year’s Art All Night in Shaw will include over 20 indoor and outdoor venues and hundreds of artists and performers.
The festival is free and no tickets or reservations are required. This year’s festival will also take place in seven other DC Main Streets neighborhoods. For more information about Art All Night in Shaw, visit www.artallnightdcshaw.com.
Get Ready to Sweat in Shaw on Sept. 16
After bars, restaurants and nightclubs, Shaw has more health and fitness studios than any other type of business. On Sunday, Sept. 16, from noon to 4 p.m., #SweatInShaw, a fitness crawl sponsored by Shaw Main Streets, will allow participants to explore the neighborhood’s many wellness options in one afternoon.
Attendees will choose from four different fitness tracks (strength, core, sculpt, stretch) featuring seven participating studios: District Pilates, Fuel Body Lab, Off-Road DC, Reformation Fitness, Solidcore, Urban Athletic Club and The Yoga Shala.
Attendees will check in at the #SweatInShaw Zen Lounge located at The Colonel (1250 Ninth Street NW), sponsored by MY Lifestyle, where they will enjoy complimentary food and drink from CAVA, Buttercream Bakeshop and Zurena, facials and a DIY clay mask bar by Skin Scholars and massages amid relaxing music.
The $75 tickets for the event cover three classes from participating fitness and wellness centers, the #SweatInShaw Zen Lounge and a workout and wellness swag bag. Information and tickets are available at www.shawmainstreets.org.
Shaw Gets New Restaurants
The much-lauded Mason Dixie Biscuit Company is moving to Shaw. After becoming famous as a drive-through purveyor of freshly baked biscuits and chicken sandwiches, Mason Dixie has finally set down roots at 1819 Seventh St. NW. The new home in Shaw will have a dining room with 45 seats, along with a counter for solo diners. The extensive kitchen will enable the proprietors to expand their offering of sandwiches and experiment with types of biscuits. The new space should be opening in September.
Next door, at 1817 Seventh St. NW, buildout is underway on a new outpost of the &Pizza restaurant chain. &Pizza is a fast casual dining brand known for well-made pizzas as well as offering a craft-your-own pizza. &Pizza in Shaw should be opening in mid-October.
Shaw Gets Ready for School
Shaw marked the opening of school with a distribution of backpacks to neighborhood children. A grant from Douglas Development Corporation to Shaw Main Streets provided 300 backpacks and supplies to young scholars. The backpacks were distributed, at a health festival, to children at the Foster House and Lincoln Westmoreland apartments, by the members of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6E and to Seaton Elementary School. In a separate effort, the Friends of Kennedy Playground distributed 50 backpacks and school supplies to children in the community.
Walk through Shaw History on Sept. 23
Cultural Tourism DC and Shaw Main Streets will present two free historic walking tours of central Shaw on Sunday, Sept. 23, as part of the annual WalkingTown DC event. The tours are free and open to the public but require advance registration.
Entitled “Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Parts I & II,” the tours are led by Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander Padro. The morning tour starts at 10 a.m. from the southeast corner of Seventh Street and New York Avenue NW and covers the neighborhood’s southern half, which is today dominated by the Washington Convention Center but once consisted of woods and farms.
Notable historic figures who lived and worked in lower central Shaw are highlighted, including explorer John Wesley Powell, African-American US Senator Blanche K. Bruce and historian Carter G. Woodson.
The afternoon tour starts at 1 p.m. at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library, 1630 Seventh St. NW, and focuses on the entertainment history of central Shaw’s northern half – from the Howard Theatre, where every star in the black entertainment pantheon performed, to the pool hall where Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington decided to become a musician, to two sites that hosted baseball teams.
To make tour reservations, visit www.culturaltourismdc.org.
