Upcoming at Rhizome (click on event for more details):
Exhibit runs July 10-26
Opening reception / live music: Friday July 10, 7-10pm - TICKETS ($10-20 sliding scale)
Closing reception: Sunday July 26, 5-7pm
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
Vessel: an art & music exhibition
Featuring:
Emily Alff • Virginia Boyles • Sam Contrino • Deirdre Darden • Elsie Dwyer • Ella Gallogly • Charlotte Hodgeson • Fiona Kohrman • Diane Krauthamer • Jaxyn Lethe • Genevieve Ludwig • Katie Macyshyn • Sarah Ozment • Emilie Toler • Kelly Xio • Brit Whited
Curated by Fiona Kohrman, Deirdre Darden, and Sam Contrino
Exhibit runs July 18 - August 2
Reception: Sunday July 26, 5-7pm
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
Smatters - A 35mm photography exhibition by Eleanor Olson featuring a collection of candid images shot between December 2025 - June 2026.
Monday July 20 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS
Pig Heart Transplant - Long-running west coast industrial noise. 1/2 of IRON LUNG.
FRKSE - Organic Death Industrial, new LP “Through The Slow Dusk” out now.
HSFB - Head Separating From Body is a pseudonym of artist and musician Max Hamel.
Vasterian - “Variable-speed mind fucking”.
Tuesday July 21 * doors at 6 * $20 * TICKETS
All proceeds to medical relief efforts in Gaza.
Plastic Toys
https://www.instagram.com/theplastictoys/
Fantazma
https://fantazma.bandcamp.com/
Ben Demase and the Instant Goblin Death Machine
https://www.instagram.com/bendemase
Corinth
Jet Hardy
https://www.instagram.com/jetkhardy
Wednesday July 22 * doors at 7, music at 7:45 * $15 * TICKETS
Jade Weapon is chaos music from maryland. They make beats then make them loud.
Druid Stone is the transexual b-horror music queen, est. 2011. Trans doom metal from Herndon, Virginia.
Courage Mother is a post-hardcore band from Northern Virginia, the brainchild of Salvi-American songwriter Lily Monico. Courage Mother is a project that originated from the desire to overcome. Their songs typically are very high in intensity, structurally adventurous, and lyrically address themes of trauma and growth.
Thursday July 23 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $10-20 * TICKETS
Lin Hsiao-Feng is a Taiwanese improvising flutist, curator, and Music Director of Lin’s Culture in Taipei. His work bridges flute traditions from different cultures, free improvisation, and experimental sound, expanding the possibilities of contemporary flute performance through cross-cultural collaboration. In 2024, he was named World Flutist of the Year by the World Flute Society for his album Cadenza21 and was invited to perform at the Paris Cultural Olympiad. He has performed throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia, fostering intercultural dialogue through improvisation and flute traditions from different cultures.
Hsuan Chang Kitano is a producer, multimedia artist, and adjunct faculty member at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches harpsichord, fortepiano, and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century improvisation. Together with flutist Mr. Lin, their ensemble's album CADENZA 21' received international recognition, including a nomination for the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package and multiple nominations at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music, including Best Producer, Best Arrangement, and Best Cross-Genre Album.
p.cain (dc) - solo electronics
https://modelhomedc.bandcamp.com/album/p-cain-12
Friday July 24 * doors at 6:30, music at 7 * $5-15 * TICKETS
Kiing
Spring Silver
Strawbalien
Young Swansii
Motel Portrait
plus art raffle
Saturday July 25 * 3-10pm * $15 * TICKETS
Returning for its third year, OCCIPITAL Fashion Festival once again brings you an eclectic lineup of local bands all modeling clothes made by local fashion designers. The event serves and encourages interdisciplinary creative collaboration and community building. OCCIPITAL III will present varied music performances with customized style, crafty workshops, photoshoots, a clothing swap, a marketplace, and sustainability. Always interactive and experimental, OCCIPITAL encourages inspiration and audience engagement.
Interested in volunteering or vending? Click HERE.
Sunday July 26 & bi-weekly * 11am * $5-10 suggested * REGISTER
How do different traditions across history and geography think about how we should live our lives? Join this community for a casual, biweekly discussion group dedicated to exploring the practical philosophies and lived wisdom of the world’s major spiritual traditions. Over the first 12 weeks, we’ll look at foundational ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Stoicism, Shinto, Yoruba, Animism, Christianity, Islam, and some modern faiths.
This is less of a learning seminar and more of a conversational space. There are no right or wrong answers, and you don’t need any background in religious studies to participate. Come as you are, ready to chat about the ideas that jump out at you, what resonates with your own perspective, and how these philosophies might map onto our lives.
Check out the working syllabus and readings: tinyurl.com/explorefaiths
Sunday July 26 * 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 July 26 * doors at 7:30, noise at 8 sharp * $10-20 * TICKETS
Slime Queen Bingo (from Slime Planet/Tampa, FL)
The original Harsh Noise Cringe Clown / screamed instructions and manic meltdowns for a class of unruly DIY music fans
Breakdancing Ronald Reagan (from Hollywood, CA)
America’s Worst Noise Artist / the type of cringe train wreck that you can’t look away from
Death Envy (from Stanton, CA)
The Founding Father of Cringecore / Cybergrind for real MySpace heads who know that instruments are for chumps
jane.
is the noise, industrial, and performance art moniker of Cynthia Dorothy-Jane Ryan. She uses tape, vocals, sex toys, found objects, live looping, and the like to create music meant to challenge the presumption that femininity requires either pacifism or submission. Her work often highlights the fetishization of her own transsexuality to create an overwhelming clutter of both self-acceptance and internalized disdain.
Monday July 27 * 7pm * Free * RSVP
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this month, Rhizome DC will host “America Me: 250 years of Promise & Prejudice”, a seminar presented by activist Pelumi Olatinpo, author of the social commentary Manifest Destiny. By holding a mirror up to empire, Pelumi will examine what America has been and what it can become. The 19th-century doctrine “Manifest Destiny” will take center stage as Pelumi exposes the founding belief for what it really is: language used to justify domestic and foreign violence and oppression. Weaving in his background as an American-Nigerian immigrant, Pelumi will engage with what it means to be American in a nation also founded on the promise of equality, of unalienable rights —life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He will incorporate readings from both Manifest Destiny and his earlier work Poeta: Sonetas and Sonnets.
Tuesday July 28 * doors at 7pm, music at 7:30 * $10-15 * TICKETS
Mundy
https://www.instagram.com/mund4ye
https://soundartreality.com
Shiloh The Messenger
https://www.instagram.com/shiloh_themessenger
https://www.shilohthemessenger.com
D Skillz Harris
https://www.instagram.com/dskillzharris
Raf Almighty
https://www.instagram.com/thenewesi23/
Wednesday July 29 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS
Drew Davis - Drew Davis of Crazy Doberman plays in solo mode. He has collaborated with Zach Rowden, Rodger Stella, Tim Gick, Kyle Flanagan, John Olson and many, many more.
Ben “Baby” Copperhead is the snake-bitten moniker of NYC-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist whose compositions, performances, and arrangements offer a unique, contemporary vision informed by an unlikely range of influences, traditions, and collaborations. Copperhead expresses his folk roots through his “otherworldly” banjo style using modal and tonal explorations, while sometimes using samplers, processed drum machines, tape loops, and handmade electronic instruments inspired by the experimentalism of Musique Concrète. Longtime collaborator, David Menestres, will be joining Copperhead on double bass.
Brick Digest presents "Fort Lincoln" - Come learn about the history of the unrealized Fort Lincoln "New Town" development in Washington, DC. The mastermind behind Brick Digest will share the story of what could have been in Northeast DC.
Thursday July 30 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS
Trace Amount is the solo project of Brooklyn-based producer, vocalist, and visual artist, Brandon Gallagher. The sound is a harsh strain of industrial music, evoking apocalyptic dread through primal rhythms, layers of synth and noise, and Gallagher's distorted moans and screams.
Pennsylvania’s own darkwave enigma, LUNACY transmits from the edge of ruin, fusing cinematic post-punk, industrial pulse, and spectral noise into a sound both ancient and futuristic. Their music explores the shadowy corners of the human psyche, echoing themes of collapse and catharsis through powerful synths and analog drum machines.
S Y Z Y G Y X has been active for several years now. Last year, she released her fourth full-length album on Cold Transmission Music. “Sinner” picks up the thread of the previous work, yet undoubtedly stands out as the most personal. Deeply human themes form the guiding principle of a sound that once again positions itself between Electro / Pop-Wave and EBM.
Serpent Hologram is an improv electro industrial duo born of the eternal transmutive autophagy of the Ouroboros.
Friday July 31 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS
Grex is an experimental music duo based out of Oakland, California. In biological terms, a "grex" is an entity composed of several smaller organisms. Grex (the band) explores the meeting point between surreal songcraft and the dark outer reaches of free jazz, industrial hip-hop, and art rock. The group has been called an "otherworldly experience" (Eugene Weekly) and "true genre warping music" (KFJC), recalling at turns the ecstatic energy of John Coltrane, the electronic squall of Death Grips, and the lilting songwriting of Mitski.
Lesley Mok is a New York City-based percussionist and sound artist. Their work is guided by a continual search for the connection between the mundane and the divine, the experience and manipulation of time, and a desire to capture emotional dissonance and complexity. Lesley’s ongoing explorations with composition and improvisation are most notably documented in their debut album The Living Collection(released May 2023 on American Dreams Records). The album, described as “an exquisite and stimulating work” by All About Jazz and “a singularly personal statement” by Jazz Trail Magazine, was named International Debut Album of the Year at the 2024 Deutscher Jazz Preis. As a collaborator, Lesley has shared the stage with Tomeka Reid, William Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn, Myra Melford, Mary Halvorson, and Rafiq Bhatia among others.
Embroidered Bird blends simple acoustic based songs with analog sound experiments using mostly analog synthesizers, cassette tape loops, and thrift store instrument finds.
Saturday August 1 * 1pm * $5 suggested * REGISTER
Live Action Role Play is a combination of improv, theater, physical movement, crafts, and just about any genre of story you can think of! All are welcome to these 2-hour LARPs hosted at Rhizome DC, whether you're completely new to the artform or a seasoned veteran.
On Saturday, August 1 from 1-3 pm we're playing Monumental Consequence by Mary Beth Looney, where 9-40 players become villagers in the occupied town of La Ville who face an impossible choice: destroy their centuries-old church to save lives, or risk everything to preserve the art within. This game was developed by Central Michigan University Press and can be used for fun (like we will be doing) and as an educational tool in classrooms! If you are an educator intrigued by this premise, I encourage you to come see it in action.
Exhibit runs August 1-28
Opening reception with live music by Zottoh & cannibal boom: Saturday August 1, 4-6pm
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
Zottoh is the solo project of Santiago Soto, focused on sound works built through electric guitar feedback and spatial amplification systems, where the surrounding environment becomes part of the instrument itself.
In this configuration, a guitar is suspended within a metal frame, held in place by tensioned steel cables. The surrounding structure functions as an environment that both supports and stresses it. Transducers fed by external sources as well as by the guitar’s own signal excite the entire structure, setting both frame and instrument into vibration. Sound, captured through the guitar’s own pickups, is reintroduced into the space through speakers and transducers, activating a continuous loop of airborne and structural feedback. In this way, sound appears both self-inflicted and as a response to its environment.
Conceived as a self-portrait, the piece does not represent appearance but condition. The suspended guitar becomes a surrogate body—held together by the same forces that strain to pull it apart. During the opening, the work is performed using synthesizers and external processing; during the exhibition period, it remains open to visitor interaction through a simplified interface that excites the structure directly, without amplification.
Exhibit runs August 1-28
Opening reception with live music by cannibal boom & Zottoh: Saturday August 1, 4-6pm
Open during all events, or email us to schedule a different time to view
what is the sound of the tears of a clown?
reishin norberto gómez jr (born 1983, Alice, Texas, USA) is an artist, writer, publisher, curator, and educator based in Washington, D.C. Their work engages the interstices and chasms of death, spirituality, and technology, along with aesthetics, horror, media studies, and popular culture. They are the co-founder and editor of Sybil Press (est. 2013), an independent publisher of zines, art books, and experimental print media. Sybil Press has participated in print, art book, and zine fairs across the U.S. and internationally, including Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair, Boston Art Book Fair, Tokyo Art Book Fair, and Vancouver Art Book Fair.
Sunday August 1 * 7pm * $10/15 advance, $20 at the door * TICKETS
BIG CITY PRESENTS
CITY SPOTLIGHT: ECHOES OF DOUBT
SHY RASHEEN
OPEN MIC
ARTIST SHOWCASE
CITY CYPHER
LIVE PERFORMANCES
VENDORS
ARTIST SHOWCASE (LIMITED SLOTS) 1ST COME 1ST SERVED
PROOF OF LIFE
Sunday August 1 * 7pm * OFFSITE at Tonal Park * $15-30 * TICKETS
At Tonal Park Studios. Tonal Park is at 7014-C Westmoreland Ave, Takoma Park, MD. Enter through the WOWD entrance at 7014-B. Any questions, email info@rhizomedc.org; please don’t contact Tonal Park.
Keith Fullerton Whitman is a Composer & Performer of Live Electronic Music currently living in Brooklyn.
Guitarist Bill Nace’s experimental improvisations and compositions extend the boundaries of electric guitar technique, using bows, metal, wood, glass bowls, and other implements. His distinctive musical vocabulary references folk, rock, and punk traditions as he works to make a ubiquitous instrument sound new.
Deli Philosophers is a new duo of Brian Weitz (Geologist, Animal Collective) and Michael R. Bernstein (Double Leopards, Religious Knives). They'll be premiering their new group at this performance.
Sundays August 2 and September 6 * $20 suggested * REGISTER
Learning crochet and don't know what to make next? Join us for a two-part class exploring how to crochet granny squares, a versatile crochet shape that can be repeated and assembled into a useful tote bag. All supplies provided. No experience necessary.
In part 1, we will learn how to make a granny square in one or multiple colors, and we will begin our granny square bag.
In part 2, we will troubleshoot challenges with making granny squares, and we will learn how to assemble the squares into a tote bag.
Part 1: Sunday August 2nd, 11 AM - 12:30 PM
Part 2: Sunday September 6th 11 AM - 12:30 PM
Price: Pay what you like, recommended $20
Questions? Email swamp.rose.studio@proton.me
Sunday August 2 * 6pm * $10-15 * TICKETS
Green Fields, Grine Felder
1h 37m, 1937
"Ulmer's soulful, open-air adaptation of Peretz Hirshbein's classic play heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema. When an ascetic young scholar ventures into the countryside, searching for the city of "true Jews," he learns some unexpected lessons from the Jewish peasants who take him in as a tutor for their children."
Hosted by the DMV Jewish Labor Bund
Potluck beforehand
No Yiddish skills necessary!
Discussion afterwards
Movie is subtitled in English.
Monday August 3 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15 * TICKETS
SH!TOMATO - A cacophony of noise rock, psych, trip-hop and jazz, SH!TOMATO defies easy categorization, pulling listeners into a swirling soundscape of controlled chaos and hypnotic rhythms. The record thrives on unpredictability, shifting effortlessly between distorted walls of sound, eerie downtempo beats, and moments of improvisational brilliance. At its core is one half of long-time AD mainstays Comfort Food, bringing a raw, exploratory energy, blurring the lines between structure and spontaneity.
The Peopling - The solo project of NYC to PNW transplant Ronnie Gonzalez, longtime Already Dead cohort and one half of legendary duo Video Daughters
Simmone Wrath - Baltimore experimental and digital hardcore.
Inter Not Milan - Alternative Hip Hop ex Pain Directive
Tuesday August 4 * doors at 7, music at 8 * $10-12 * TICKETS
BLASTER
Iowa weird hardcore punk
https://blaster3.bandcamp.com/
GORF
DCHC
https://www.instagram.com/gorf.band/
BRAIN SURGERY
Maryland grinding noise punk
https://www.instagram.com/brainxsurgeryxpunk/
GIFTS UNGIVEN
DC metalcore
https://giftsungiven.bandcamp.com/
Wednesday August 5 * doors at 7pm, music at 7:30pm * $15-25 * TICKETS
Bark Culture is a trio led by vibraphonist Victor Vieira-Branco featuring drummer Joey Sullivan and bassist John Moran. With over four years of immersive collaboration, the trio is known for their strong ensemble identity, high-energy live performances and extensive touring. Their record “Warm Wisdom” was cited as the Debut Release of 2024 by New York Times Jazz Critic Hank Shteamer, and listed as Best Jazz on Bandcamp September 2024. More recently, the trio was enlisted by Rob Mazurek to perform on the soundtrack of Kelly Reichardt’s new film The Mastermind which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. For the group’s second album THE GIANT IS AWKWARD, the trio is joined by pianist and composer Sam Yulsman.
Born from a meeting of musical minds at the 2026 Washington Women in Jazz Festival, We All Witness is an avant-garde collective that brings together some of the Washington, D.C. area's most adventurous instrumentalists, featuring Amy K. Bormet, Sarah Marie Hughes, Christine Paluch, and Keith Butler Jr. The project serves as a dedicated platform for exploring the fusion of horror music and jazz.
Thursday August 6 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Helen Hill was an experimental animator, filmmaker, educator, artist, writer and social activist who lived her last years in New Orleans, Louisiana. Featuring puppets, hand-drawn animation, found footage and hand-processing techniques, Hill's short films—including Bohemian Town (2004), Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century (2001) and Mouseholes (1999)—have been screened at festivals all over the world. She is also the author of a lavishly illustrated and self-published book called Recipes for Disaster which compiles techniques for hand-processing film.
Tragically, Helen Hill was murdered by a random intruder in her New Orleans home in the early morning of January 4, 2007, one of six murders in New Orleans in a single twenty-four-hour period. In an extraordinary and in many ways model collaboration between Helen’s family, the Harvard Film Archive, New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, Colorlab, the Orphan Film Symposium, the University of South Carolina and countless individuals, Helen Hill’s films—including shorts, animation and home movies, as well as her papers—were organized and donated by Paul Gailiunas to the Harvard Film Archive that same year. Shortly thereafter, guided by the coordination efforts of Dan Streible, ten of her films were preserved by Harvard and Colorlab.
Thanks to the Harvard Film Archive for making the screening possible.
Friday August 7 * doors at 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS
Centigrade 2 is an electro-industrial commentary on climate change utilizing superfluous samples, haptic synths, and excessive effects.
Karacell has been performing electronic music in the southeast Virginia and Richmond area since 2009. Previously exploring a plunderphonic psych pop approach, her current music is inspired by melodic techno, acid, and shoegaze. Her performances are hardware based, featuring the live manipulation of synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines.
Syncretist - the solo project from Robert Salsbury – makes instrumental electronic music, blending melody with kosmische rhythms, hip hop beats, electro, and 90s IDM. The live set, based on the LP “Oscillated Incidents”, is propulsive and danceable with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
Diner Hours returning back home to the DMV after 19 months in Nebraska, Diner Hours (Amanda and Drew) return with oboe tinged ambient suitable for corner booths.
Secret Wilderness (DJ / live electronics set) - Jake Reid has been a long time DC area musician most known for shoegaze bands Alcian Blue and Screen Vinyl Image. Jake will provide a mix of DJing and live synths to keep music flowing between setups for the night. Expect a heady mix of ambient and techno.
Saturday August 8 * 1pm * $15-25 * REGISTER
Itching to get creative? Come dye with me! This class will cover making and dyeing with indigo, including the basics of shibori (Japanese tie-dye). You'll learn how to:-make an indigo vat-dye with indigo for long-lasting color-tie up the cloth for a variety of beautiful patterns-care for your indigo-dyed itemsEach participant will receive 1 bandana to dye with. All other materials provided. You may bring a few additional items to dye from home. Small to medium sized items with 50% or more natural fiber content work best.. In addition, wear clothing that you don't mind getting stained. Bring an apron if you wish, and rubber gloves if you have them. Instructor: Sophie Kanter: www.thebluesti.com/
Saturday August 8 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Ammonite
Ammonite is a band from Maryland/D.C. offering dynamic live shows, fierce genre bending, eloquent songwriting, and ethereal harmonies. Queer AF.
Blackout Transmission (Santa Fe)
Blackout Transmission is a band formed in Los Angeles, CA now residing in the Mountain West that compose and play neo-psychedelic rock music with UK shoegaze and darkwave influences.
Grace A. Keller
DC-based singer/songwriter,
1/4 of hotel sewing kit
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