Art All Night (Nuit Blanche DC) Expands to H Street

Art All Night DC from Julian Vu on Vimeo

Art All Night is an annual arts extravaganza that has traditionally taken place at venues in Shaw and downtown DC. This year it is spreading out, and there are many venues on H Street, and in the the Trinidad and Starburst Intersection areas. This is pretty big news, and I'm really excited about it. I especially like that there are some early evening family friendly offerings, as well as those more for grownups. Art All Night was inspired by Paris' Nuit Blanche which is an internationally known all night arts festival. H Street is one of five District neighborhoods participating in Art All Night this year. Events range from visual arts installations, to dance, to musical performances, and beyond. In our area this is made possible through a partnership between H Street Main Street (HSMS) and the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
HSMS is currently seeking volunteers (four hour shifts) for the event. Those who volunteer can score an event t-shirt and a food voucher. The event runs from 6pm this Saturday until 3am Sunday. Interested in volunteering? Email: info@HStreet.org

I've taken the liberty of posting the most current event info below, but please check the actual website for all the area events, as well as events around the District (and info on free Circulator buses that will transport you around the participating neighborhoods). You are encouraged to RSVP for the entire event online, but you don't need tickets.

Two notes:

The Rum Shop from Cutlass & Cane is a new store (NOT a liquor store) opening in part of the available retail space at The Flats at Atlas (check out my Flickr set on the Flats). It's a "Caribbean inspired lifestyle brand that embraces the culture through fashion art and music." More simply stated, it's a clothing shop. But during this, its third pop-up event at the Flats, it will serve rum and food for you to enjoy along with music, art, and fashion.

The Starburst stuff is Capital Fringe, so I wanted to remind people that they have purchased the Connersmith gallery at 1358 Florida Avenue (Trinidad). That's a pretty huge arts development for our area. You can learn more about Capital Fringe's opes for their Trinidad space (including how to help them realize their dreams) here.

3rd Street + H Street
The First Tee of Greater Washington, DC will transform the vacant lot on the Southside of 3rd St and H St. into a Golf skills training community experience
6pm -10pm: Kids & Family activities
10pm – 3am: Adults activities: Professional Golf course instructions for adults with instructors.
10pm – 3am: Live DJ & visual art

501 H Street* This event seems to have disappeared from the final list
This year Event MKTG By Tia Kane and Cr8tionrebel invites you to experience The Urban Art Resort–an international collection of furniture objects, mixed media artists and musicians balanced by a partnership of celebrity mixologists and Haitian chefs. Lotus of Wati, Michelle Frazier, Al Burts, Ray Wright, James Terrell, Koumani Holistics.
6pm – 11pm: Indoor Art Gallery Opens; Select performances including Jazz, Spoken Word and Eclectic Soul
11pm – 1am: DJ Performance, Lounging (Full Venue)

646 H Street* (or 407 H Street) *I've seen both listed. I think it's 407 because this sounds like Art by the Glazz (reserve your space on the website).
For novices and experts alike, sing along to the music, sample desserts all the while creating your very own take-home masterpiece. Three two-hour sessions:
7pm – 9pm; 10pm – 12am; 12:30am – 2:30am

H Street Connection (807 H Street)
Creative Carousal hosts artistic pop-up social events, private parties and children’s celebrations at hip venues throughout DC and surrounding areas.
6pm – 7pm: Creative Kids Paint
7pm – 12am: Adult Freestyle Paint
Painters of all skill levels will receive freestyle guidance to help create their own masterpiece while socializing, enjoying music, and sipping wine.

1001 H Street (Ben’s)
Open House and preview of the new Ben’s Chili Bowl
7pm – 12am: Live music + food sampling

1007 H Street
AFROBEAT, one of DC’s best-loved parties, returns! Face-painting and live drumming on deck throughout the night. Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Nigerian and Ghanaian music, jazz, highlife, funk, and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularized in Africa in the 1970s.
DJ DrewCool and DJ Underdog.

Library Kiosk (1300 H Street)
U.S.A.I.R.A.N obscures the perceived divide between Iranian and US identities. As part of the 5×5 Project, artist Sanaz Mazinani brings attention to the void of Washington D.C.’s official Embassy of Iran, which has stood regal yet vacant on Massachusetts Avenue NW since 1980. Mazinani wraps a quintessential mid-century American building — the site of the former Robert L. Christian Community Library — in intricate Islamic patterns. Articulating the nebulous sense of place from the perspective of an emigrant, muraled windows and walls reference the architectural details of the former Embassy. Upon close inspection, these patterns are comprised of mass media imagery, composed in both parallels and contradictions. U.S.A.I.R.A.N examines absence and placelessness, while at the same time explores the potential for harmony. It is a site from which to build mutual respect and activate cultural exchange.

1301 H Street
7pm – 7:30pm: One Love Massive Bus
7:30pm – 3am: Live bike frame painting and custom bike making
7pm – 3am: DJ Phantom

The Atlas Theater (1333 H Street)
8pm – 10pm
Begin your Nuit Blanche experience on H Street with music by composers who made homes in Paris by way of Russia, where White Night Festivals are celebrated in June around the Summer Solstice. Igor Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat and Sergei Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op. 39 get an updated and funky All Points West treatment. All Points West is an eclectic chamber collective that transforms the classical concert into a social experience.
8pm – 10pm: Laura Tsaggaris: Live at the Atlas
Visual Artists:
Gwendolyn Qi Aranya, Malia Kai, Shawn Lindsay, Jeffrey Miller, Yusef Abdul-Jaleel


Gallery O on H Street (1352 & 1356 H Street)
7pm – 3am
Art installation by Albus Cavus, an artist collective that inspires and promotes community improvement through innovative multidisciplinary and interactive visual art projects.
8pm – 11pm
Photography exhibition celebrating 50 years of photojournalism in The Washington Informer newspaper.

Music in the Courtyard
Starburst (H St., Benning Road & Bladensburg Road Intersections)
Capital Fringe is dedicated to infusing energy into performing arts in the region through their annual Fringe Festival and year-round Fringe Training Factory. They connect exploratory artists with adventurous audiences by creating outlets and spaces for creative, cutting-edge, and contemporary performance in Washington DC.
7pm – 7:30pm: Eric Powell Jr, spoken-word
7:30pm – 8pm: Gully Waters
8pm – 8:30pm: Leftist
9pm – 10pm: Karen Culi
10pm – 11pm: Identity Krisis
11pm – 12am: Forwards Backwards and Sometimes Sunday, Tina Camara
12am – 3am: Live DJ’s


Cutlass & Cane Pop-Up (Flats at Atlas 1600 Maryland Ave – Bladensburg Rd. Entrance)

Cutlass & Cane Clothing Co. is a Caribbean inspired lifestyle brand. Cutlass & Cane currently has a pop-up space in the Flats at the Atlas where it plans to open its first retail outlet called The Rum Shop, which will showcase the vibrancy, diversity and culture of the Caribbean through Art, Fashion and Music.

7pm – 7:30pm: Artist showcase:
DC Made Me, Peter Lewis, Lisa A. Ochieng and Inkwell Graphix
7:30pm – 8pm: Roan Ross presents “Ichiban Reggae Japan,” an inside look at underground Reggae in Japan – a movement that began with just a few passionate fans has grown throughout Japan.
8pm – 9:30pm: DJ Ventian
9pm – 10pm: Live Cutlass & Cane Fashion Show
10pm – 11pm: Performance by Christos DC
12am – 3am: DJ Knightrin

Jimmy Valentines (1103 Bladensburg Road)
DJ’s and Art

Bardo (1200-1216 Bladensburg Road)
Film Projection, Bands
 7pm – 9pm DC Shorts
9pm– 11pm Sweet Papas Back