Upcoming at Rhizome (click on event for more details):
Exhibit runs October 1 - November 30
Opening celebration Saturday October 4, 1-4pm
Closing event Sunday November 30, 12-4pm - performances, slide show, instrument building, snacks...
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
On a rainy day at BWI Airport, Baltimore artist Fred Merrill is reading a soggy thrift-store copy of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception. It’s a fitting image: Fred’s world is one where everyday reality slips into something weirder, wilder, and more alive.
In Fred’s reality, corporations become detailed micron illustrations of telephone monsters with tendrils and tongues, Barry Manilow deserves an altar, and sculptural creatures bend and blend into the landscape. There’s the sounds too– atonal harps built from scrap wood and found objects like shark teeth, guitars with hands and feet. A self-taught artist, everything is medium.
Near the UMBC campus, Fred’s home has long been a haven for students to play house shows, install any art they can imagine, and take up residence in a massive collection of thrifted books about sea creatures and photography. Much like Rhizome, this space is cooperative and runs on creativity.
For the month of October, Rhizome will house Creatures from a Door to Perception, a selection of work spanning several decades. This show celebrates not just Fred’s work, but the energy and spirit of grassroots creative spaces across our region.
Come hang out! Fred’s noise project, Electric Cabbage, will reunite for an improvised performance. There’ll be homemade instruments for an open group jam session, plus a photographic slideshow by Fred himself. Light snacks and drinks will be served.
Workshops on DIY instrument building and collaborative sound-making will pop up throughout the month—stay tuned for details.
Friday November 14 * 7pm * $20-25 * TICKETS
Transparent Productions welcomes back William Hooker (drums) with a trio featuring David First (guitar) and Ayumi Ishito (sax).
William Hooker (drummer, composer and poet) has created works that range from jazz and "new" music to experimental genres. He has released over 80 CDs as a leader. William’s latest releases are A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 and archival recording with Alan Braufman and David S. Ware and The Ancients with Isaiah Collier and William Parker. “Recognized as an iconoclast, and one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, William knows no genre bounds and ceaselessly searches for new forms of music, always with the intent to inspire.” - THE WIRE
David First has always been fascinated by opposites and extremes. He has played in raucous drunken bar bands, semi-legal DIY basements and in pin-drop quiet concert halls with classical ensembles. First’s performances often find him sitting trance-like without seeming to move a muscle, unless he is playing with his psychedelic punk band, Notekillers, at which time he is a whirling blur of hyperactive energy. He has been called a fascinating artist with a singular technique in the NYTimes, and a bizarre cross between Hendrix and La Monte Young in the Village Voice.
Ayumi Ishito was born and raised in Ishikawa, Japan. One of her recent projects Open Question received 4 stars review in DownBeat magazine in 2022. Also her another project The Spacemen was selected for the Best Jazz of 2021 in Bandcamp. As a composer, Ayumi has been leading her quintet since 2011 and performing her compositions. The band released two albums, “View From A Little Cave” in 2016 and “Midnite Cinema” in 2019.
Saturday November 15 * 1pm * $10-20 * REGISTER
Participants are invited to select, modify, and animate directly onto 16mm film scraps or blank polyester film using permanent markers or tools to scratch the emulsion from the surface. Work produced during this workshop will be spliced together to make a singular short collaborative film. The resulting short film will be projected at the end of the session. The film will be scanned and distributed to workshop participants who wish to receive a link via email after the session.
Instructor Emily Francisco is a sculptress utilizing signal flow as medium. Born in Honolulu, raised in the lead belt, educated in Saint Louis and the District of Columbia - she has exhibited work internationally and occasionally performs around Washington DC.
Saturday November 15 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Ted Dodson is the author of An Orange(Pioneer Works / Wonder, 2021) and co-translator of Death at the Very Touch / The Cold by Jaime Saenz (Action Books, forthcoming). He is a contributing editor for BOMB, an editor-at-large for Futurepoem, and a former editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter.
Sending postcards, stickers, voicemails, and other ephemera across the country and around the world, BUCK DOWNS creates a body of work as boundless and intimate as life and death. In Paideuma's "Poets We Live With" issue, Anne Boyer writes: "... the postcard performances of Buck Downs are a world-historically perfect match between poetry and method of publication." Coming soon from above/ground press is [OKAY], a second collection of Instagram poems.
Sunday November 16 * 12pm * $5 suggested * REGISTER
Explore the connections between art and science in a Fall Botanicals Nature Journaling workshop! Dot will guide participants through the foundations of a mixed media journaling practice and provide tips for plant ID. This workshop is open to all levels. We will be working on mixed media paper with pencils, pens, and watercolor pencils. If you have your own drawing materials please bring them, but if not there will be supplies available at the workshop.
Sunday November 16 * 3-5pm * RSVP
Death Cafes are opportunities for people to enjoy refreshments together and discuss the topic of death. The objective is to “increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” There are Death Cafes all over the country. What's on your mind about death and dying? Contact Death Cafe Facilitators Margaret Branch at margaret603@gmail.com or Monica Lynch at mlynch19@comcast.net.. Death Cafes are NOT therapy, grief support, or counseling sessions. Cost: Free (small donation for the space encouraged)
Sunday November 16 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Dave Scanlon writes austere songs and continues a series of "counting" compositions focusing on intonation and measurement. Scanlon has performed with Jason Ajemian, David Behrman, Otomo Yoshihide, and numerous others. Scanlon will be performing selections from Greenland Shark, an album written about the North Atlantic fish, Somniosus microcephalus. In addition, he will perform "Monochromatic Pool", a piece written for guitar and narrator about the exoplanet Proxima Centauri B.
Max Hamel is a craftsperson, musician, artist and instrument maker with diverse practices ranging from professional fine violin luthiery to handmade live electronics. Their performance work builds upon a foundation of circuit bending, feedback, magic, touch and chaos, delighting in subtlety, pliable gesture and flippant ambiguity.
Juan Horie is a Venezuelan/American cellist who was trained in Venezuela's acclaimed SISTEMA, studying modern cello in the Academia Latinoamericana de Violoncello with Maestros Leandro Bandres and William Molina Cestari. Following his passion for Ancient Music he entered the Latin American Academy of Ancient Music (ALMA) and studied baroque cello with Maestro Manuel Hernandez.
Monday November 17 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Anthony Thomas Lombardi is a writer, educator, organizer, & romantic in revolt. He is the author of murmurations (YesYes Books, 2025); the founder & director of Word is Bond, a community- centered benefit reading series that raises funds for transnational relief efforts & mutual aid organizations; & runs Verses & Voltas, a poetry service specializing in workshops, mentorship programming, & more. He has taught or continues to teach with Borough of Manhattan Community College, Paris College of Art, Brooklyn Poets, Florida State University, Polyphony Lit’s apprenticeship programming, & community programming throughout New York City & currently serves as a poetry editor for Sundog Lit. His work has appeared or will soon in Best New Poets, Ploughshares, Missouri Review, Black Warrior Review, Nashville Review, Narrative Magazine, & elsewhere. He lives & loves in Brooklyn with his cat, Dilla. He believes in a Free Palestine & thinks you should too.
Alexa Patrick (she/her) is a vocalist and poet from Connecticut. She is the author of Remedies for Disappearing (Haymarket Books, 2023) and holds fellowships from Cave Canem, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and more. Previous artistic partnerships of Alexa’s include Meta, Microsoft, The Kennedy Center, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. In spring 2023, Alexa made her stage production debut as Un/Sung in the opera We Shall Not Be Moved, (dire. Bill T. Jones). You may find her work in publications including Adroit, The Rumpus, CRWN Magazine, and The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. Visit alexapatrick.com for more.Taylor Johnson is from Washington, DC. He is the author of Inheritance (Alice James Books, 2020), winner of the 2021 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and a 2024 Whiting Award. His work appears in Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, The Baffler, Scalawag, and elsewhere. Johnson is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and a recipient of the 2017 Larry Neal Writers’ Award from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the 2021 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers from Lambda Literary. Taylor was the inaugural 2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum. He is the 2025-2026 Hackerman Writer in Residence at the Enoch Pratt Library. taylorjohnsonpoems.com
Wednesday November 19 * doors at 6:30, music at 7 * $15-30 * TICKETS
ransparent Productions welcomes back DC’s Abe Mamet (French Horn) with Jamie Sandel (violin), Will Tober (bass), Keith Butler, Jr. (drums), Brian Settles (tenor saxophone), Samantha Kochis (flute), Sonali Singh (bassoon). Opening set by Davie Kline (solo bass).
Lauded as D.C.’s “major jazz French horn player” by the Washington Post, and named one of 2023's "artists to watch" by DCist, Abe Mamet is a composer and instrumentalist committed to using his music to ground himself, his fellow musicians, and his audiences more deeply in the spaces they occupy daily. That commitment involves exploring the use of the French horn in groove-oriented improvised music (informed by the traditions of jazz/creative music/Black American Music), and expanding the technical and theoretical limitations of that instrument.
David Kline is a bassist, filmmaker, and scholar from Knoxville, Tennessee. He is actively involved in the Knoxville experimental music and arts scenes, and is the author of Racism and the Weakness of Christian Identity: Religious Autoimmunity (Routledge, 2020) and the co-editor of Words Made Flesh: Sylvia Wynter and Religion (Fordham, 2025).
Thursday November 20 * doors at 7, show at 8 * $15 * TICKETS
Geologist: Brian Weitz, also known by his stage name Geologist, is a musician best known as a member of the experimental pop group Animal Collective. He provides electronic sound manipulations and samples for the band. Solo he does that and plays a lot of hurdy gurdy too. With special guest Jim Thomson on percussion.
The Caribbean: The Caribbean is an American experimental project from Washington, D.C., composed of Michael Kentoff, Matthew Byars, and Dave Jones. Described as “minimalist/drone/Philip Jeck-by-way-of-Carole King” and by the description in a review by PopMatters that “They're taking Brill Building songs and writing them in invisible ink, turning jazz standards into Twilight Zone episodes, turning folk songs into clouds of fog,” the band has been critically acclaimed for its deconstructionist approach to pop music, and its wry, literary lyrics. Their 2011 album Discontinued Perfume was hailed by the Washington Post as "a subtle masterpiece," and DCist proclaimed the following about their record Plastic Explosives: "Let us be clear about this: Plastic Explosives is one of the finest recent records we’ve found, from any act, local or otherwise."
Friday November 21 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:15 * $15 * TICKETS
Jon Camp is a fingerstyle guitarist and composer based out of the DC region. Jon blends melody, twang, and drone into a cohesive whole that is exploratory without forsaking the hook. Jon will be celebrating his new record, Proceed, out October 17th through Centripetal Force Records. Proceed is a full-band affair that is electric, expansive, and emotionally muscular, channeling a spirit of forward motion amidst the weight of memory and uncertainty. For Jon's Rhizome set, he'll be joined by regular collaborators Dave Jones (The Caribbean), Julian Comanda (Visitors), Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek, Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders), and some guests.
Marian McLaughlin is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Her most recent album, Alcove, is a compilation of peaceful songs inspired by time spent outside gardening and walking in the woods. The album highlights the joy and gratitude felt from witnessing simple yet transcendental moments in nature, like watching the golden hour, fireflies emerging, a hummingbird zipping by, or two hawks flying overhead.
Dura is the solo project of DC's Mattson Ogg, comprising blissed out guitar picking and groovy tremolo drones. Through cassette releases on Patient Sounds, Scissor Tail, Atlantic Rhythms, and most recently Aural Canton, Dura is always trying to find a lower way to listen.
Saturday November 22 * 1-5pm * Donation$ * TICKETS
LET’S STAY TOGETHER is an artist salon featuring vendors, crafts, and discussion around what creating may look like for local artists. Come for some respite and inspiration, and to get to know other creative folks!
Tickets are free to any amount of donation, with funds going to the DC Trans Abolitionist Collective’s active fundraiser. Tablers may be raising funds for this as well as other important fundraisers.
Saturday November 22 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $25-30 * TICKETS
Transparent Productions welcomes Otherlands Trio: Stephan Crump (bass), Darius Jones (alto sax), and Eric McPherson (drums). “A massive veteran trio...bassist Stephan Crump and alto saxophonist Darius Jones are not just immense players, they’re also two of the city’s great creative music composers, pushing it into wondrous, unexpected but also inviting spaces.” New album, Star Mountain, arrives October 17, 2025 on Intakt Records.
Stephan Crump is a Grammy-nominated bassist and composer, collaborator and bandleader, soloist and educator, based in New York City since 1994. Working beyond genre, he has become a crucial component of multiple New York music communities in and beyond jazz. Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of African-American music. Jones has released a string of diverse recordings featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism. Jones’ music is a confrontation against apathy and ego, hoping to inspire authenticity that compels us to be better humans. A native of NYC, Eric McPherson came to prominence apprenticing with legendary saxophonist and educator, Jackie Mclean, and innovative pianist and composer Andrew Hill. Those foundational experiences cultivated Eric into one of the leading drummers in contemporary creative music.
Sunday November 23 * noon-4pm * $5-10 suggested * RSVP
The DC Modular Society is a group focused on learning, teaching, and performing electronic music with modular synths. DCMS meetups are open to all with an interest in electronic music, modular and other hardware synths, and hybrid systems for creating and performing music. We encourage and support building a diverse and inclusive community—if you’re wondering if you belong—the answer is yes! No equipment is necessary to attend meetups, but feel free to bring gear if you like. Mixer and PA system provided. We frequently do informal demos of synths and electronic music techniques.
Sunday November 23 * 4pm * $5 suggested * REGISTER
Join exhibiting artist Jill McCarthy Stauffer for a workshop to create your own analog projected artwork! Participants will use their phones to illuminate hand cut paper cutouts, gels, and films to experiment with light based art and projection.
Sunday November 23 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Kristina Warren is a versatile and imaginative sound artist, composer, and performer based on Narragansett land, also known as Providence, Rhode Island. Warren’s performances range from synth voyages and digital soundscapes to concertina meditations and beyond; Warren also presents installations, workshops, lectures, and more. All this work aims in various ways to highlight the ebbs and flows of individual and collective listening attention.
Mike Alfieri (he/him) is a NY-based musician known for his collaboration with experimental pop group Tomato Flower and his solo electronic sets using Sensory Percussion. He’s toured widely and performed with artists like Animal Collective, Melt Banana, Susan Alcorn and Matmos.
Signals Under Tests - Richard Graham, Ph.D., is a musician, technologist, educator, and entrepreneur. His academic and practical pursuits encompass computer-assisted music composition and instrumental performance.
Monday November 24 * doors as 6:30, show at 7 * $10-20 * TICKETS
Liz Hogg (b. 1993) is a guitarist and composer/songwriter from Brooklyn, NY. Hogg has been described as possessing “energy, expressive dynamics and phrasing” (American Record Guide), “fantastic work” (Classical Guitar Magazine) and “playing with a more distinctive and original approach that includes quickly-strummed chords, chiming arpeggios, and rapid-fire picking” (Geoff Cabin). Her playing has been further characterized as “strong, precise, and powerful” (Bushwick Music Daily), “radiating in its own light” (New Noise Magazine), carrying“élan and fine precision” (Fanfare), and “displaying a confrontational spectrum of emotions” (Music & Riots).
Exit Angles is an experimental post-punk, melodic, trance rock and roll band from Wheeling, WV, formed by Jay Demko in 2021. Their debut album, A Sickness and a Fire, was mixed by J. Robbins (Jawbox), and released in March 2023 by Blind Rage Records on limited run vinyl (now out of print), and cassette. Their 2nd album Iterate was self released on vinyl in April 2024. They toured after its release supporting Brainiac and Explosions in the sky. EA have expanded their sound on each record, and a 3rd album is set to release in February 2026, further pushing boundaries.
Friday November 28 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $10 * TICKETS
Druid Stone - Druid Stone was conceived under the influence of cheap drugs in the Autumn of 2011. Have the members straightened out, or are they still doomed to getting high at the expense of the world? Come see for yourself…
The Lampreys - Laptop-Twee from Richmond, Virginia
Fibbing - Baltimore-based piano rock trio celebrating the release of their first full-length album
The Death of James Dean - DOJD is a Philadelphia-based punk band coursing with Northern Virginian blood. Their often-unintelligible live shows sit at the intersection of hardcore, post-rock, and performance art.
Saturday November 29 * 12-5pm * Free / donations * RSVP
A pop-up exhibit honoring South Asian genderqueer expression and sisterhood through the metaphor of braids.
This multimedia piece is both a love letter to queer identity and to the long braided tresses that have so long been synonymous with South Asian femininity, with the goddess-- a gilded cage, or a reclaimed adornment? How does femininity transform as it passes through different people's hands?
Riya Devi-Ashby was born in 2001 in Silver Spring, Maryland. In 2023, she received her BA in Studio Art from Wesleyan University with a concentration in painting and mixed media installation. As an emerging artist, Devi-Ashby has already been featured in juried group exhibitions such as “Creative Confluences” at Towson University and “Intricate Layers” at Motor House, and she completed her first solo exhibition ‘Veni, an Unweaving’ in 2023. She is also classically trained in Kuchipudi dance by guru Nilimma Devi, and her extensive performing experience informs her visual art practice.
Saturday November 29 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS
Miri Tyler is a multi-instrumentalist in Washington, DC, playing drums in Ekko Astral and bass in Pretty Bitter. As the leader of the Miri Tyler Trio, her ringing vocals and rollicking guitar create a sonic landscape of exploration, punch, and verve.
Erica Dawn Lyle is a writer, curator, experimental musician, and cultural instigator who lives in New York and Florida. The former touring guitar player for Bikini Kill, as a solo performer, Lyle has released musical collaborations with Kim Gordon, The Raincoats, Bernadette Mayer, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Deal, Brontez Purnell, and many more. The author of several books and a contributor to Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, and other publications, her most recent book is The Knight of Cups (Beladonna Press, 2023). Her latest music LP, ON FIRE, is out this October from Feeding Tube Records.
Dr. Girlfriend is evil tr4nny Halloween music from Northern Virginia.
Sunday November 30 * 10am * Free / donations * REGISTER
Topic: "Writing in Hard Times"
This class will cover topics on how to help maintain focus and writing inspiration during such stressful cultural times, especially if your writing is about such a subject.
About the Instructor:
TT Madden (they/them) is a genderfluid, mixed-race author who refuses to keep "politics" out of their writing or to put AI in. Their work writing weird fiction often deals with the intersections of their various identities. They've published several books, including Gorman's House, Student Bodies, and The Cosmic Color, with more forthcoming.
About Lilac Peril
Lilac Peril is a DC-based small press by and for trans writers, with a particular interest in the subversive and experimental. Our next book TABOO is out now.
Monday December 1 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $10-20 * TICKETS
Odyssey, a dance duet choreographed by Nancy Havlik for Corina Dalzell and Aquiles Holladay, explores a journey for two movers and th-eir changing perception of each other and of their world. Music fo Odyssey is by Aquiles Holladay.
I'm Still Here, an improvised solo for Aquiles Holladay directed by Nancy Havlik, takes its inspiration from the famous poem by Langston Hughes juxtaposing deep stillness and intense movement.
Zach Mason performs improvised electronic drones. His current work explores using the performance space as a sound source; recording, processing, amplifying, re-recording, re-processing, and re-amplifying room tone.
Elemental Canyon - DC\MD - Minimalist, noise, beeps, drone, reverb, etc.
Exhibit runs December 2 - 22
Opening Reception Saturday December 6, 3-5pm * $5 suggested donation * RSVP
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
The STEAM Engine features over 20 local artists and their creative approaches combining STEM with art (STEAM). These artworks by full time artists, biomedical researchers, oceanographers and more, portray unique perspectives and stories born from the studies of our vast universe. Join us to learn and be inspired as we celebrate the fusion of STEM and art.
Imka is a visionary bio-therapeutic artist and composer whose work exists at the intersection of sound healing, neuroscience, and the natural world. With a deep commitment to the decompression of the mind and soul, Imka creates immersive sonic experiences that support emotional release, nervous system regulation, and holistic well-being. As a practitioner within the holistic wellness community through audio, Imka has collaborated with wellness centers, botanical gardens, cultural institutions, and mental health practitioners to bring bio-sonic practices into spaces of healing. His soundbaths, workshops, and installations foster multi-sensory engagement and are known to open gentle yet profound portals of inner clarity, reflection, and peace.
Michael R. Bernstein is weary of the human world, so he has designed robots to play his music for him.
Malcolm W. Taylor is a Maryland-based percussionist. He is a strong advocate for new music and frequently collaborates with diverse artists. He focuses on incorporating theatrical elements and technology with percussion creating interdisciplinary performances that explore varying themes. He is currently researching applications of Afrofuturism in music for percussion and electronics.
Friday December 5 * doors at 7, music at 730 * $15-20 * TICKETS
In support of her newest album Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark, Gwenifer Raymond returns to Rhizome during her winter tour of the States. The album is Raymond’s first since 2020’s Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, which drew widespread acclaim for its repurposing of Mississippi blues and John Fahey’s intricate Americana to embody Raymond’s roots in rural South Wales and her interests in folk horror and the avant garde, a new form dubbed Welsh Primitive. Now, on her forthcoming album, Raymond finds herself conjuring the work of pioneering rocket scientists, the words of fictional hobo prophets and the concepts of mathematical infinity.
Christo Graham began writing his first songs when he was just 13. His effective minimalism is evident in his 2020 album 'Turnin'', whose 12 songs were inspired by a four-track recorder belonging to his grandmother and containing two songs recorded by herself at some point. His latest album “Music For Horses”, released by We Are Busy Bodies in October 2024 was also created on a similarly mystical recorder. Recorded in a 115-year-old classroom, with reduced percussion and restrained guitar, these new songs by Christo Graham emanate an almost meditative contemplation.
Insect Factory is the music of Jeff Barsky (and collaborators) and is a meditative project focused on deconstructing the possibilities of guitar to create detailed, hypnotic compositions. “…densely layered loops, planes of static standing tall like a gigantic back-scratcher of audio, improvised melodies clamoring over drones like they’re peaks in a mountain range…monolithic, moving, fluid and entirely lovely.” – Tiny Mix Tapes
Sunday December 7 * 3pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Kora Meditation began during the COVID-19 pandemic as a virtual space created by Amadou Kouyate, offering live Kora performances to foster connection, reflection, and calm through sound. Now, with renewed energy and purpose, the series is being revived as an in-person experience. Amadou, in collaboration with fellow musician Kelebogile Motsumi, is expanding the concept to include a wider range of African sounds and expressions, aiming to create a deeply therapeutic and immersive sonic journey.
Amadou Kouyate, a 150th-generation Manding Diali (West African oral historian/musician) and the first born of his father’s lineage in America, is a master of the 21-string Kora, Djembe, and Koutiro drums. His repertoire spans from 13th-century traditional songs to original works blending blues and jazz. Trained in Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and The Gambia under masters like Djimo Kouyate and Toumani Diabate, Amadou has taught at the University of Maryland, Montgomery College, American University, Goucher College, and UMBC, and served as an artist-in-residence at Strathmore and Wolftrap.
Kelebogile Motsumi is a vocalist and indigenous African instrumentalist from South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Pretoria, where she was trained in jazz vocals and piano. Driven by a deep desire to reconnect with the music of her roots, she explored Xhosa traditional music and developed proficiency in indigenous instruments such as the umrhubhe, uhadi, and umngqokolo. Kelebogile's musical practice blends jazz with the sonic textures of Xhosa traditional music.
Monday December 8 * doors at 6:30. show at 7 * $15-20 * TICKETS
Weirs is a Durham, NC based collective who blend traditional tunes, ballads, hymns, and instruments with an interest in drone, tape music, and long-form improvisation. They are inspired by and aspire to be counted among those practitioners that don't keep 'traditional music' behind museum glass, but get it out and use it—even if it might get dinged up. Their new album, Diamond Grove, is out through Dear Life Records.
Philadelphia-based guitarist guitarist and composer Matt Geary has been exploring the frontiers of American Primitive, folk, drone, and ambient music since embarking on his solo journey in 2018.
Kutay Sezginel's music explores the intertwined nature of tradition and innovation. Rooted in the rich heritage of Anatolian folk music and inspired by psychedelic rock, dark ambient, and krautrock, he creates cosmic soundscapes layered with microtonal cultural motifs and odd time signatures. With neo-ethnic instruments like the çağlama and the electric cümbüş as his narrators, he creates stories of imaginative realms with memories of the past. His work is always evolving and reshaping itself through the spontaneity and energy of live performances.
Wednesday December 10 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Church Car is the duo project of Ian Douglas-Moore and Big Daddy Mugglestone, blending minimalist psychedelic trance-rock, spoken texts mediated by machine algorithms, and tunings that alter the listener’s auditory perception. Their guitar and drum interactions move between polyrhythmic goatherd meditations and field recordings, creating an imagined folk tradition glimpsed through a screen of urban life.
Drawn - DC/Philly - memories from an unreliable narrator. Nenet on vocals, Nate Scheible on drums, Layne Garrett on guitar.
Alex Strama / Lucia Shuyu Li / Miki present "Trilateral Communication" - Alex Strama is an American musician raised in the Baltimore Md area. He is a multi-instrumentalist who has played Guitar, Bass, and Drums in dozens of bands since 1997, fusing various forms of experimental music, noise, electronic, ambient, acid folk and psyche rock. Lucia Shuyu Li is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, performance, painting, and sound. Drawing on both her Chinese heritage and her current base in the United States, her work interrogates systems of power, cultural identity, and the fragile boundaries between perception and reality. Her projects often merge philosophy and material experimentation, engaging audiences in encounters that question the ways bodies, cultures, and institutions intersect. Miki - Performance artist / reactionary improviser mixing sound, lighting, and visual arts, focusing on natural, minimalism, and industrial settings and stage designs.
Christopher Griffiths - Tapes and electronics.
Thursday December 11 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15 / PWYC * TICKETS
Scissortailflycatcher (TX Emoviolence)
https://bozosdistro.bandcamp.com/album/scissortailflycatcher
Life (MD Emocore)
https://life9.bandcamp.com/
Crows Foot (MD Blackened Metal)
https://crowsfootmd.bandcamp.com/album/bleak-years
BattleSet!!!
Aisle 19 (MD Power Violence)
https://aisle19.bandcamp.com/
vs
Emma Wrath (MD Cyber Noise Grind)
https://on.soundcloud.com/O1ZMCnwQslXsmWHzGl
Friday December 12 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15+ * TICKETS
A concert/fundraiser for Transparent Productions with the Jeff Cosgrove Quintet feat. Jeff Cosgrove (drums), Dave Ballou (trumpet), Darryl Brenzel (alto), John Lee (guitar), and Tom Teasley (percussion). Friday December 12 at Rhizome DC. Doors at 7:00PM, music at 7:30PM. Donations at the door or in advance starting at $15.
Proceeds from the door will go to support Transparent and the music it brings to the DC area.
Transparent Productions was started in 1997 as an informal volunteer cooperative by Larry Applebaum, Bobby Hill, Herb Taylor, Thomas Stanley, and Vince Kargatis to organize concerts of creative improvised music in and around Washington DC. Chris Clouden, Sara Donnelly, and Clay Fink became involved later. We continue today with Bobby, Chris, and Clay. Since our start we have produced over 350 shows and will continue to make it possible for listeners in and around DC to hear this non-commercial, uncompromising music in interesting spaces like Rhizome DC.
Sunday December 14 * doors at 5:30, music at 6 * $15-35 sliding scale * TICKETS
CATALYTIC SOUND FESTIVAL 2025 - DC EDITION
Silt Remembrance Ensemble + Angelica Sanchez
Victor Vieira-Branco’s Bark Culture
Tashi Dorji
Alex Hamburger
Presented by Catalytic Sound, Transparent Productions, DC Jazz Festival, and Rhizome DC.
Catalytic Sound is a music-based co-operative designed to help create economic sustainability for its artists through patron support.
Monday December 15 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS
Secret Planet DC presents…
El Mantis is a heavy psychedelic jazz band formed in 2021 in Houston by Danny Kamins (alto saxophone), Andrew Martinez (guitar, vocals) and Angel Garcia (drums, vocals). Influences include King Crimson, John Coltrane, Magma, and The Mars Volta.
Mark Cisneros’ Space-Fire-Truth - led by Chicano/Indigenous-American artist and multi-instrumentalist Mark Cisneros. Des Demonas, Hammered Hulls, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, The Make-Up, WE WERE HERE BEFORE.
Sarah Hughes is a performing and visual artist. She has 26 years of experience playing the alto saxophone and also doubles on the soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet. Hughes’ music is intuitive and genre-liberated while displaying an unquestionable command of her instrument and musical vocabulary. Her improvisations and compositions are infused with knowledge of both traditional and contemporary approaches and combine a love for “The Greats” with a drive to innovate.
Wednesday December 17 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS
FÖR is a new collaboration between percussionists Kweku Sumbry (Washington, DC) and Shakoor Hakeem(Philadelphia) and Swedish saxophonist Isak Ingvarsson. Rooted in the spirit of Don Cherry’s arrival in Sweden in the mid-1960s, the project bridges Swedish folk traditions with the rhythmic folklore of the Afro-Diaspora—fusing into a deep sonic eruption of energy and expression.
MORE THAN A DRUM PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE/ABASI JOHNSON FEATURING POET BERNARDINE “DINE” WATSON — DC artists Abasi Johnson and Dine Watson return to Rhizome for a set of boundary challenging percussion and poetry.
Thursday December 18 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Oh, Gynander
thisdogllhunt https://thisdogllhunt.bandcamp.com/
Stargazer https://stargazerdc.bandcamp.com/
Friday December 19 * doors at 5:30, noise at 6 * $20 suggested (NOTAFLOF) * TICKETS
ALL DONATIONS TO THE MISS MAJOR ALEXANDER L. LEE TGUP BLACK TRANS CULTURAL CENTER
ALBATROSS (DMV NERVOUS PUNK)
VASTERIAN + BLESS YR HEART (WEIRDO HYPNOSIS TAPE NOISE + VIOLENT EMO FOLK)
RENRIOT (ALT-ROCK/GRUNGE-PUNK)
POTOSI (TRANS SCREAMO BILINGUE)
DRUID STONE (TRANS DOOM METAL)
Saturday December 20 * 7pm * $20-25 * TICKETS
Transparent Productions welcomes back Jason Kao Hwang Critical Response.
Jason Kao Hwang - electric violin
Anders Nilsson - electric guitar
Michael T.A. Thompson - drums
“Book of Stories is arresting, captivating, and, at times, massively thrilling. Jason Kao Hwang’s trio with electric guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson dives into an adventurous fusion session where the musical influences never sit still…” — Dave Sumner, Bandcamp
The music of Jason Kao Hwang (composer/violin/viola) explores the vibrations and language of his history. His compositions are often narrative landscapes through which sonic beings embark upon extemporaneous, transformational journeys. As violinist, he has worked with Karl Berger, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Butch Morris, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, Pauline Oliveros, Patrick Brennan, Tomeka Reid and many others.
Sunday December 21 * 3-5pm * RSVP
Death Cafes are opportunities for people to enjoy refreshments together and discuss the topic of death. The objective is to “increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” There are Death Cafes all over the country. What's on your mind about death and dying? Contact Death Cafe Facilitators Margaret Branch at margaret603@gmail.com or Monica Lynch at mlynch19@comcast.net.. Death Cafes are NOT therapy, grief support, or counseling sessions. Cost: Free (small donation for the space encouraged)
Friday January 2 * doors & art show at 7, music at 8 * $15-30 * TICKETS
Visual art:
Ava MacKaye
Isabella MacKaye
Stella Schwartzman
Lily Schwartzman
Dean Winter
Zane Grant
Owen Basher
KJ Thomas
Tess Kontarinis
Azalea Amaya
Cooper Ellenbogen
Music:
Birthday Girl
Mabel June
Wednesday January 7 * doors at 6:30, show at 7:30 * $20-30 * TICKETS
Maria Chávez, Shahzad Ismaily (Arooj Aftab, Ceramic Dog), and Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) came together as a trio for the first time for a show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in May 2025. That debut performance received a glowing review in The Wire, where writer Vanessa Ague heralded it as “a reminder of [...] the sheer joy of seeing what surprises we can find in sound”.
Each of the players’ inimitable approach to their instruments has earned them vivid, varied and longstanding careers. Now, in this new formation, a fresh breath arrives: combining abstract turntablism, outré drumming and uncanny instrumentation, their sonic searching is as playful as it is profound.
Monday January 26 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS
CHEMICAL-X
hardcore punk from North Jersey
https://chemical-x1.bandcamp.com/
SAAFEWAAY
evil grocery store punk music from DC
https://saafewaay.bandcamp.com/
LIMIT BREAK
Super saiyan hardcore from Baltimore
https://limitbreakbchc.bandcamp.com/
Recent events:
2nd & 4th Wednesdays * online at 8pm Eastern * Free / donation * RSVP
A weekly guided dream-sharing hangout…. Welcome to the theater of your dreams—an inexhaustible source of images and stories that can provide entertainment and insight, and that requires no cable service and no subscription—just attentiveness and an open mind. Participants will share dreams, using a gentle, non-intrusive method for unlocking the metaphors that structure dreams (derived from the long-tested method of Dr. Montague Ullman). We’ll also talk about techniques for recalling and recording dreams, as needed.
Please click through for more details.