The ArtHouse

We've attended this event in other times of the year and had a great time. This is the first summer one and there will be all new exhibits. These galleries are incredibly welcoming and full of impressive art - and most of them are close together. You can see a full list here.

The event will feature 16 local venues showcasing a diverse range of artwork, including photography, paintings, sculptures, and mixed media pieces - plus a classic car show and some restaurant specials.
Throughout the day, you'll have the chance to meet and chat with the artists, learn about their inspirations and creative processes, and purchase unique pieces to add to your collection.​

These are really nice concerts, outdoors when possible. They do a great job finding amazing talent. And it's free. Will Kimbrough is a renowned Nashville-based singer-songwriter, an uber versatile multi-instrumentalist, a musicians musician and was named the Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2004.

Sign up here.

Known for his fluid, expert guitar work, he is considered a staple in the Americana music scene and a frequent collaborator with artists like Jimmy Buffett, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Shemeika Copeland, Todd Snider, Steve Forbert and more. He is recognized for his prolific work as a session musician, a Grammy winning producer, adorned with many more awards and accolades and often called the hardest working man in Nashville.

Will is the longtime lead guitarist for Emmylou Harris and a member of her esteemed Red Dirt Boys. Kimbrough’s twenty year songwriting relationship with Jimmy Buffett culminated in Buffett’s swan song, “Bubbles Up” and Will still plays with Jimmy’s Coral Reefer Band. After the loss of two of his closest musical partnerships in the last year, Jimmy Buffett & Todd Snider, Will’s is on tour honoring these special relationships, with a delightful tribute sharing how music, stories and songs bring us together rather than tear us apart.

DC/DOX '26, the celebration of documentaries, is one of the best film festivals in the DMV. For four days - June 11-14 - the filmfest will explore a plethora of fascinating subjects. See the whole schedule here.

(The date of the film we're seeing is June 14 at 7pm - apologies for initial misprint.)

For the ArtHouse, we'll see The Lorraine, the first feature-length documentary about the iconic Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, and its owners, Walter and Loree Bailey. A safe haven for African Americans traveling during segregation and Jim Crow laws in the United States, the Lorraine is most widely remembered for one horrific event: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony outside Room 306.

Tickets cost $17 and can be purchased here. It will sell out, I believe. Woolly Mammoth Theater is a great venue. We'll do something social probably before nearby.

WAS JUST TOLD THAT THE DIRECTOR WILL BE THERE FOR A DISCUSSION AFTER. VERY COOL. Throughout his career, director Sam Pollard has received numerous awards and honors. In 1998, he was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award for 4 Little Girls with Spike Lee. He won a Peabody Award for When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts in 2006 and received three Emmy Awards between 2007 and 2010. He also received the International Documentary Association’s Avid Excellence in Editing Award in 2008 and their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, followed by a Career Achievement Peabody Award in 2021.

But the story of the Lorraine is far greater than that one tragic day. This documentary captures the astonishing and inspiring story of an enterprising Black couple’s pursuit of the American Dream, told through the voices of those who lived it. Their purchase of the motel in 1945 laid the foundation for a hub of social, political, and creative power, making the Lorraine a cradle of innovation and community-building. Civil rights demonstrations were planned there. Musical hits were written there. The film captures it all, including the Black community’s determined effort decades later to save the building, preserving both the history that unfolded there and the powerful symbolism it continues to embody.