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Upcoming Events

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Recent Past Events

World Parks Day 11-3pm

Marvin Gaye Park, 5200 Foote St, NE Washington DC 20019

Come join Washington Parks & People to celebrate your community and park!  Skate along with the DPR Skatemobile, join in on a Jazzercise, Yoga or Tai Chi demonstration, get your face painted, double dutch, play flag football and enjoy music.  Also, courtesy of the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, the Humanities Council and Washington Opera, celebrate with Community in Bloom and join in as we dance, sing, drum and shout our appriecitation for the community where we learn, play and live!

Marvin Gaye Park Playground Opening

 

August 20, 1:00-2:00 PM

 

 

North Columbia Heights Green Meeting

NORTH COLUMBIA HEIGHTS GREEN PLANNING MEETING
Tuesday July 14, 2009 7:30 PM

Please join us as we plan for the transformation of the North Columbia Heights Green (bounded by 11th, Park, Sherman, and Lamont.  We  invite your help.  The next meeting on site will take place on Tuesday, July 14, at 6:30 p.m. 

If you are interested in being part of the volunteer work team to help the Green, or if you have ideas about how to improve it, please let us know and/or come to the meeting.  

Sacred DC
SACRED DC FESTIVAL
This Sunday, June 21st, 2009  (Summer Solstice), 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Public festival taking place in the Josephine Butler Parks Center and Meridian Hill / Malcolm X Park
 
The mission of SACRED DC is to build community through the arts, culture, activism, and healing arts.  Art is not about conforming to one ideal or one person’s way of expressing themselves; rather it is about getting in touch with one’s own creative spirit as possible means of healing.  There was no better venue than our very own public, beautiful green space with so much precious and rich history, including Josephine Butler's own summer solstice celebrations of the past. It is also a celebration of diversity within this neighborhood and throughout all of DC.
 
Participants will experience hands-on workshops with local artists, musicians, healers, activists and more.  There will be delicious cultural foods, mural painting, poetry slam, drum circles, face painting, stilt walking activists, various performances, and art displays throughout the day.
Human rights, peace, environmental, and cultural organizations throughout DC will table and provide workshops.  Washington Parks & People (a sponsor) and other Parks Center nonprofits will be representing!  SACRED festival will provide opportunities to collaborate and share resources with others, present the arts in non-traditional ways and deepen public awareness of the dynamic diversity of Washington, DC.
For this unique event, all are invited.
Earth Ball
EARTH BALL
This Friday, June 19, 2009, 6 p.m. - midnight, The Mott House, 122 Maryland Ave, NE
An Earth Awareness Soiree
Attendees are invited to partake of short films about nature and humanity, peruse a green exhibit gallery of graphics from green organizations expounding on their missions, and listen to speakers providing up to date insight on the state of energy and the environment, while experiencing a stimulating backdrop for individual self-education, networking and fun (including music, a scotch tasting and a champagne/caviar nightcap) as each randomly explores what the expanding green jobs market could mean personally and globally. For more details on the program see https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=79709564609&ref=nf.

All proceeds will be donated to local organizations (including Washington Parks & People!) facilitating opportunities for low and moderate-income residents to grow and consume their own produce locally.
 
To learn more about the EarthBall and buy tickets, hit http://earthball2009.homestead.com. More events like this could be
coming your way soon. Tickets, available first come, first served, are $25 on-line and $35 at the door.
Design Charette

April 25, 2009
10 am
North Columbia Heights Green, behind Red Rocks Pizza, bounded by Park Road on the north, 11th Street on the west, Lamont Street on the south, and Sherman Avenue on the east.


A community design charette, focused on planning the North Columbia Heights Green, recently acquired by Parks & People, in the context of the community’s green needs and assets, will take place at the site at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25. It will be led by Columbia Heights resident John Henderson, a park planning veteran who helped design the renaissance of the Chicago Park District, along with Parks & People Landscape Architect and Columbia Heights resident Ian Tyndall. There will be food and music, and all are welcome.  For more information call (202) 462-7275 or send an email to info@washingtonparks.net

Potomac River Watershed Cleanup

April 4, 2009
10:00am-1:00pm

Oxon Run-Meet at Oxon Run Park Amphitheater 13th & Mississippi SE

Marvin Gaye- TBD

The this is the 21st annual cleanup done in conjunction with the Alice Ferguson Foundation Potomac Watershed Clean-Up. Since this event began more than 40,000 volunteers have teamed with 300 partner organizations to retrieve over 1,500 tons of trash from the watershed's streams, rivers and bays. Contact Washington Parks & People if you are interested in volunteering at Oxon Run Park for this event!

 There will be food! music! and fun!

Marvin Gaye Music Festival

April 4, 2009
2:00-8:00pm
Marvin Gaye Park

Come out and celebrate Marvin Gaye's 70th Birthday and the 50th anniversary of Motown Records!

There will be various activities going on throughout the park beginning at 1pm and ending around 8pm.

1-4pm: Heritage Trail Unveiling & Community Walk

4-6pm: Talent Show (Walk-ons welcome! Or contact us to sign up or do so at the Riverside Center)

6-8pm: Various artists performing Motown tunes including some of Marvin Gaye's hits.
           Performers include:
                                   -Andrea and Chyp

There will also be demos for some of the new programs being offered at the Riverside Center through our Heart & Soul Program. (Jazzercise, African Dance, Hoop Dance, etc.)

Come celebrate Marvin Gaye and spring in the park by getting together with the community and rejoicing in the rich heritage of the neighborhood while supporting local artists and youth!

Composting in the City

March 25 6:30 pm
Josephine Butler Parks Center
2437 15th St NW
Washington, DC.

Who knew composting in the city could be so easy! 

Composting is the decomposition of organic materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent nutrition for your houseplants or enriching your garden. It is the best way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal.  Join us at a workshop lead by Ed Bruske, Past-President & Co-Founder of DC Urban Gardeners, to learn about the tremendous number of options for composting and containing your compost. You will learn that anyone can do it and no space is too small. And a panel of show and tell so you can hear from people that are really doing it. 

This workshop will cover:
-indoor composting with worms (vermiculture)
-outdoor composting
-how to pick the right bin for you
-why composting matters
-the connection between soil and climate change

Come learn the specific how to's and join with millions of others to stop wasting precious resources and positively impact your
environment. You'll be composting in no time!

 

About Ed Bruske, Past-President & Co-Founder of DC Urban Gardeners
From Ed, "In a previous life I was an award winning reporter for The Washington Post, mainly covering the District of Columbia. I am a Master Gardener and past-president and co-founder of D.C. Urban Gardeners. I am a food writer for Martha Stewart Living and Edible Chesapeake magazine and maintain a daily food blog called The Slow Cook. I teach children where our food comes from and how to cook it, and I grow much of the food our family eats in the kitchen garden outside our home here in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, about a mile from the White House. Except what we put at the curb for recycling, we compost all of the organic matter that passes through our home, including our late lamented Guinea pig, Shadow."

Check carbonfreedc.com for more info.

Cool Inaugural Ball
COOL Inaugural Ball
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
8:00pm – 12:00pm
Tickets:  $75 in advance, $100 at the door
 
Josephine Butler Parks Center
2437 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(Closest Metro: Columbia Heights on the Green Line)
 
LIVE BAND!
Dancing!
Drinks!
Food!
All proceeds benefit Cool Capital Challenge and the Sierra Club!
 
Don't miss out on the Coolest Inaugural Ball in honor of President Barack Obama.  Come eat, drink and be merry with your local grassroots volunteer environmental organizations. Tickets will be available soon! 
 
Celebrate as Cool Capital Challenge and the Washington DC Chapter of the Sierra Club  join forces to help stop the climate crisis right here in the nation's capital.  Rock out with us as we grove to Northeast Corridor, the band that help put this president into office with their "Sing for Obama - Karaoke We Can Believe In” Fundraisers.  And, with an extra donation you can take a turn as lead singer of the band!
 
So, where will all this fabulously cool fun be happening?  At the historic and swank Josephine Butler Park Center in Columbia Heights!  The dress code is "Cool" so don't be square, and we'll see you there!
 
Purchase tickets here.