Wednesday November 20 * 7pm * $5-20 * RSVP

Join the artists of Fall Fieldwork for an informal, works-in-progress showing. Artists in a mix of disciplines met weekly for the past ten weeks to share work and exchange feedback in the Fieldwork method. This showing is a culmination of our time together, it will also include a feedback portion so you (the audience) can get a taste of the Fieldwork process. 

2024 Fieldwork Artists
Annika Papke
Annie Choudhury
Claire Alrich
Katie Ciszek
Ellie Dries
Emi Kawashima
Ginny Bixby
Julian Valencia
Kashvi Ajitsaria
Lu Fern
Meghana Deshmane
Niki Afsar
Patrick Smith
Soraya the Great
Yasha Shulkin

*CANCELLED*

Tuesday November 19 * doors at 7, music at 730 * $10-20 * TICKETS

Insurgent Learning Workshop: Pedagogy of the Surveilled (DC) - Marshall Trammell & Chinyere E. Oteh - Initiated through partnerships with the Palestinian-American run Temescal Art Center (TACmusic and Arab Amp) in Oakland, CA and the Salwa Foundation, a Levantine (Lebanese/Syrian/Jordanian/Palestinian) focused arts foundation in Amsterdam, Music Research Strategies presents an Insurgent Learning Workshop (ILW) for audience participation, participatory and collaborative research, tactical media graphic score-making and Improvised conduction for Experimental/Improvised Music. Led by archivist Chinyere E. Oteh (www.fotolove.org/about), known for indigenizing archives and libraries, and self-styled Music Research Strategist and Experimental percussionist Marshall Trammell, the duo invites public participation in score creation and Improvised conduction. Trammell performs in White People Killed Them, In Defense Of Memory and collaborates with Luke Stewart, Jamal Moore, Aaron Turner, Tashi Dorji, Erica Dawn Lyle, Hafez Modirzadeh, Dismantling Tactic: X (dance troupe). He is a former member of Black Spirituals.

The night's second performance is dynamic, Improvised trio debut featuring Electronic Music by Bushmeat Sound (Dr. Thomas Stanley) and Model Home's Pat Cain, and self-styled Music Research Strategist Marshall Trammell's two-piece drum set.

Monday November 18 * 7pm doors, 7:30pm show * $15-25 * TICKETS

Valentina booking presents:

flo petite (DC)
Thalia Zedek w/ Karen Sarkisian (Boston)
eraser girl (NU DC band)
su dance100 (Yunnan, China / Berlin)

Thalia Zedek is probably best known for her stints as lead singer for the NYC noise rockers Live Skull in the 80's and as the lead singer/ guitarist in the Boston based Come in the 90's, but she has been releasing haunting solo records under both her own name and under the Thalia Zedek Band moniker on the Matador and Thrill Jockey labels since the early aught’s and for the last 10 years has also been 1/3 of the Boston based noise rock group E, who recently released their 5th LP on Silver Rocket.

Dan Su (aka su dance110) is an avant-garde Chinese transdisciplinary artist, composer, choreographer, and founder of 3087 Records. They work with sound and movement in the contexts of performance, music, and art. Their background in quantitative methodology and dance motivates their thinking in both conceptual and bodily ways. Their performances delve into psychological, cybernetic, ontological, and personal realms with daring experiments, addressing topics such as structural violence and marginality.

Saturday November 16 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS

Guitar player and multi-instrumentalist Drew Gardner plays groove-based, improv-heavy psychedelic rock. His Flowers in Space band is based in New York City. He also plays guitar and vibraphone in Elkhorn and Jeffrey Alexander and The Heavy Lidders. Cygnus A is Drew Gardner's fourth solo record and features him playing zither, guitar and mbira.

Seawind of Battery is the ambient guitar project led by NYC musician Mike Horn, known for its expansive and serene soundscapes that act as a sonic balm for those in a state of existential anxiety. Collaborating with lap steel player Jarrod Annis, the album artfully blends cosmic country with uplifting energy.

Tarotplane is P.J. Dorsey from Baltimore MD. He has released a number of albums on labels such as 12th Isle, Patience/Impatience, and Constellation Tatsu. Working mostly with the guitar, his work has been described as “new school kosmiche."

THIS EVENT TAKES PLACE AT TONAL PARK, 7014-C WESTMORELAND, TAKOMA PARK

Friday November 15 * 7pm * $15-35 * TICKETS

Outside Time & Rhizome DC present a celebration of Alma Laprida's new album Pitch Dark and Trembling at Tonal Park: 7014-C Westmoreland Ave, Takoma Park, MD. 

Pitch Dark and Trembling, out 10/25 on Outside Time, presents improvised work for tromba marina and subwoofer, recorded in 2023 at Bard College. Laprida will be staging an extended improvisation for the same instrumentation, capturing the intense swells of low end rumble and droning feedback presented on the album. More info on the release is available via Bandcamp: https://almalaprida.bandcamp.com/album/pitch-dark-and-trembling

Geologist will open the evening with an improvised performance for hurdy gurdy and electronics, bringing another instrument with medieval origins into the contemporary musical landscape.

Friday November 15 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Chris Nealon teaches in the English Department at Johns Hopkins, and lives in Washington, DC. He is the author of five books of poetry, including Heteronomy (Edge Books) and The Shore (Wave Books), which was a finalist for the 2020 National Critics’ Book Circle Award. His latest volume is All About You.

Ryan Eckes is a poet from Philadelphia. His new book, Wrong Heaven Again, is available from Birds, LLC. He is also the author of General Motors, Valu-Plus, Old News, and several chapbooks. Recent poems have appeared in Prolit, Wax Nine Journal, and Windfall Room. Eckes has worked as an adjunct professor at numerous institutions and as a labor organizer in education. With Kim Gek Lin Short, he runs Radiator Press.

Thursday November 14 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

For Camp Saint Helene, the concept of otherworldliness is neither strange nor complex, but alluring and holy. Created by Elizabeth Celeste Ibarra, Dylan Nowik, Wesley Harper and Alex Wernquest, they approach their craft akin to a ritual, leaning into the notion that art and expression are sacred experiences on an overstimulated planet. Often informed by the spirit of a defunct Christian-summer camp turned arts-colony deep within the mountains of New York, their music searches for shimmers of hope amidst hints of doom.

Sloot - Rohit Rao, Charlotte Hodgson, and Maya Renfro

Hatchetface - brand new DC band!

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.

Tuesday November 12 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

Jordan Sand is a bassist, vocalist, improviser, and composer living in Trondheim, Norway. Her solo music, described as  "Joni Mitchell meets Ligeti" (Omaha Under the Radar), blends song, free improv and noise to haunting effects. Blurring the lines between bowed bass and siren voice, Sand delivers new myths from a familiar acoustic space, fusing strings and chords into an organ-like sound beyond the sum of two parts. After four years abroad, Sand returns to the U.S. for a Northeast solo tour. In Washington, D.C., she invites Simone Baron (accordion) and Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar) for a second set in trio, delving into the raw fusion of lungs, reeds and strings.

Simone Baron is a polyglot pianist, accordionist, improviser and composer whose work “ego-less, genre agnostic and without expectations” (JazzTimes) engages curiously and charismatically with a broad spectrum of idioms.

One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.

Monday November 11 * doors at 7pm * $10 * TICKETS

Psychic Death (GA): Post-Punk/New Wave/Death Punk
https://psychicdeathatl.bandcamp.com

De()t (NC): Freaky Synthy Punk
https://weareindet.bandcamp.com

Qiik (HI): Fast, Pummeling Hardcore Punk
https://kanakattackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/qiik-demo

Sunday November 10 * 7pm $15 TICKETS

Sultry https://sultry.bandcamp.com/
Pollute. https://pollute.bandcamp.com/
eX-Tradition https://ex-tradition.bandcamp.com/album/the-holy-pervert
Sad Roach https://sadroach.bandcamp.com/
Cataclysmic (new band)

Sunday November 10 * 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 10 * 10am-noon * Free

DC Families for Ceasefire & Takoma Ceasefire Post-Election Meetup

All are welcome

Saturday November 9 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

RE(space) performs Parable Dust (Obscure Geographies), A Live Multimedia Installation for Sound,movement,visuals navigating themes of cryptic communication, social negotiations, and sanctuary (personal and communal). RE(space) is a project the grew out of Paul Steven Ray’s  Deceleration Trilogy featuring Ray and Triniti Ernest. It aims to create site specific live multimedia installations through their synergy exploring sonic, physical, poetic, and visual narrative/non-narrative excursions.

Jack Wright is a saxophonist in the Philadelphia area, one of the originals of American free improvisation. Now 81, he has lived some diverse lives, as activist and academic, until settling into music full-time in 1979--free playing is all he's done since then. He started out in the free jazz direction, but by the late 90's found that boring and conventional; shifting gears a few times he is now playing sounds that few have heard before.

Ben Bennettis a Philadelphia-based percussionist. He usually plays a compact pile of self-made drums, stretched membranes, and other objects which are continually rearranged in the course of playing, and sounded with techniques of the hit, rub, and blow varieties.

Peter Redgrave is a Baltimore based cultural worker. In his solo practice, Redgrave works with movement, musical instruments, and scores. He is currently working on expanding his PROP series, books that hold dances that dancers hold, and letting the power of the fool pass through him.

Saturday November 9 * 4-6pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Join us for an exhilarating matinee performance of 3 intrepid electronic musicians offering a diverse buffet of delicacies that are sure to stimulate the senses and transport you into the future! This lineup features electronically-extended instruments and vocals, and a sneak peak at a brand new lightsaber-electric guitar instrument right out of a sci-fi film. Whether you’re a seasoned connoisseur of the most cerebral outer reaches of sound, a fan of EDM, a futurist, or simply looking for a pleasurable thought-provoking way to spend some of your weekend, there’s something for everyone on this multi-dimensional program.

If a lightsaber and a guitar had a baby it would be the Optron, a light-based electronic music controller & visualizer designed by Chet Udell. Udell’s Optron looks like a fluorescent lamp but features advanced electronics and 144 RGB LEDs. It is an audio visualizer as well as a synthesizer of sound using light and webcam.

Cecilia Suhr is an award-winning intermedia/interdisciplinary artist and researcher, multi-instrumentalist (violin, cello, voice, piano, bamboo flute), multimedia composer, painter, author, and improviser. She has won numerous awards in the fields of music, art, interactive media, and academic research.

Jeff Kaiser is a trumpet player, composer, conductor, media technologist, and scholar. Classically trained as a trumpet player and composer, Kaiser now takes an integrative, systemic view that involves his traditional instrument, emergent technology (in the form of custom interactive/generative software and hardware interfaces), space, and audience: all being critical and integral participants in his dynamic and adventurous performances.

Saturday November 9 * 1pm * in the backyard * $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 items

Each 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.

2nd Saturday of the month * online at 1130am Eastern * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Friday November 8 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

Join us for two innovative collaborations between solo dancers and solo musicians: Oscar Suh-Rodriguez (butoh dance) & Keith Butler, Jr. (drums), and Christina Gesualdi (movement) & Jesse Kudler (guitar).

A Breeze May Take Me is a collaboration between butoh dancer Oscar Suh-Rodriguez and drummer-composer Keith Butler. The work explores themes of immortality and the abandonment of human beauty through elements of live improvisation and magic-reality invoking choreography. LiliO is Oscar Suh-Rodriguez’s debut solo piece. The work calls upon the shapes of nature—plant, insect, and animal—to awaken the body’s magical anatomy, revealing a cleaner, newer human.

The duo of Christina Gesualdi and Jesse Kudler explores the inter-dependence of movement and sound, with the boundaries between dancer and accompanist deliberately troubled; hierarchies between audio and visual constantly shift as byproducts of either medium become examined or picked up for elaboration in the other. The duo has been performing in art galleries, dance spaces, and concert venues since 2018.

** This will be a rhizome offsite show at 618 H St NW (Chinatown, metro accessible) **

Thursday November 7 * Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8pm * 18+ * $15-35 * TICKETS

Valentina Booking Presents: 

Pod Blotz from Detroit began in 2002 and has released over 25 cassette and vinyl releases. The brainchild of Suzy Poling, Pod Blotz  is a mix of modern electronics/ abstract techno project that explores sound texture while creating multi-dimensional environments. An otherworldly and cathartic mix of electronics, modular synthesis, vox, rhythm, syncopated noise and pulsations.  

TALsounds is Natalie Chami, a proud Canadian-born Lebanese American who adopted the TALsounds moniker in 2009 for her explorations in the drone, ambient, and improvisational disciplines. Through her masterful synth work, operatic vocals, and nuanced sculpting of mood and atmosphere, Chami’s music strikes a balance between the extremely personal and the selflessly transportive.

Jeremy Ray (color rot) is a DC performer, artist and muti-talented musician creating sets unlike the ones before - a true explorer of sound in all forms never ceasing to conjure up a new way of expression that leaves us in awe.

Thursday November 7 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

We are excited to present an evening of short experimental films by members of our current microcinema curatorial team: Alex Atienza, Pat Doyen, Rebecca Reynolds, and Vinny Terlizzi. Followed by Q&A with the filmmakers. Screening order to be determined.

Alexander Philip Atienza is a filmmaker, artist, and writer. He has an MFA from the University of Southern California, where he studied film and television production, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied cognitive science and philosophy.

Pat Doyen makes, preserves, programs and writes about films and other media arts. She works independently and as part of the Arsenic Cookie Film Collective in Baltimore, MD. By day she is a film archivist with a passion for home movies and orphan films. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and she has taught hand processing and filmmaking workshops for both children and adults. She is a contributor to "The DIY Guide to Film & Video" published by Parcell Press and editor of the book "Hell Yeah! Heavy Metal Parking Lot @ 30".

Rebecca Reynolds uses cinematic "parlor tricks" to construct and pervert systems of logic with surreal and provocative imagery. Ideas are played out through uncanny juxtapositions within a divided frame, created with 16mm Bolex camera and matte box. She is currently experimenting with phytogram image-making on 16mm and 35mm film.

Vinny Terlizzi - My work explores themes of perception, memory, and transformation, to reconsider the familiar. I use a mix of 16mm original negative, digital video, found footage, and visual effects to create new works. My process is driven by a fascination with how images, shapes and sounds can be deconstructed and reassembled, using repetition, color manipulation, digital glitches, and other effects to evoke something entirely new. I’m interested in reimagining the familiar and pushing the boundaries of footage while maintaining a sense of engagement.

Tuesday November 5th * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS

Red Brick Presents...

9Million (Toronto, Strangeview Records)

With:

Tosser (DC)

Canaries (Richmond)

Monday November 4th * 8pm * FREE RSVP

The public is invited to Rhizome for an indoor candlelight ceremony hosted by Mexican American installation artist Laura Irene on Monday, November 4th at 8pm.

An altar will be constructed and on view from Nov 1-4 in which the public can bring a photo or object of their loved ones to place on altar during this time. This night of remembrance and community is meant to create a much-needed space as we continue to process our continued loss especially for the people of Palestine as a genocide is taking place before our eyes, the loss of human lives every day is erasing lifelines of entire families and has been for the past 76 years. The altar will be dedicated to Palestine and for everyone who has lost a loved one in their life. At the end of the ceremmoy gong player Naoco will play the gong for 15-20 minutes in remembrance.  Afterwards there will be Mexican hot chocolate and pastries. 

 In addition, the walls will be transformed into a space for writing the names of those who have passed away as a way to remember our loved ones and the names of those that society aims to have forgotten including those who have been murdered by police in 2024 to include those whose deaths continue to empower marginalized communities in North America. The physical writing down of names is a powerful exercise in itself... 

 Day of the Dead signifies a time in which communities come together to remember their loved ones – the ways in which that is done varies across traditional lines. This exhibit aims to reclaim this holiday that has been gentrified, repackaged as décor, and sold in party stores across the USA. Our culture, identity and experiences are not for sale. This exhibit encourages the Rhizome community to discern, contemplate, mourn, and remember in order to process, heal and contribute at one’s comfort level.

Sunday November 3 * 7pm * $15-20 * TICKETS

Al Margolis is a composer/performer, improvisor, and painter. Since 1984, often under his project name If, Bwana, he has worked in the field of non-commercial, non-popular music and sound.

Tom Hamilton has composed and performed electronic music for over 40 years. His ongoing series of concerts, installations and recordings contrast structure with improvisation and textural electronics with acoustic instruments. He often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener.

Leo Chang is a Korean improviser, composer, sound artist, and scholar of experimental music currently living in Brooklyn. His art is an act of home-making inspired by various musical and ideological movements that have sought to question power dynamics and imagine egalitarian possibilities. His primary methods are improvisation, written text, graphical notation, and electronic processing.

Shoz is inspired by sound and land, responsive to invitation to listen and still.
Field recordings. found sound. melody. ceremony and prayer, connection to place, ancestor, spirit.

PraxisCat is the experimental electronic solo project from Christine Paluch. Christine is a DC based composer using synthesizers, code, and other musical instruments to explore the relationship between synesthesia and urban spaces.

Jeff Surak continues to remove any resemblance to music from his sound making activities.

every other Sunday * 10am-noon * Free / donations * REGISTER

Rhizome is pleased to announce our Youth Electronic Music Lab, for young people ages 11-18. We meet regularly to share space together while working and to give and receive feedback in a positive and encouraging environment. Our group at this point consists of some beginners and others who have experience making electronic music and are able to work independently on it. We plan to invite guest musicians periodically to share tips, talk music theory / composition, offer feedback, etc. Please bring a laptop and headphones if possible. Bring some of your own music you’re working on or would like to share.

Saturday, November 2 * Doors @ 6 * $10-20 * TICKETS

This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Erm, actually This is ALG-0-WEEN! Come in your Halloween best for this revival of D.C.’s dead livecoding scene, a subculture of live electronic music performances improvised with code. Since 2020, as far as we know, there have been no such events in the DMV. But what better occasion to perform this resurrection than the spookiest night of the year? 

Trick or treat yourself with an evening of audiovisual performances by artists from all over the East Coast, joined by interactive installations by local artists in the upstairs gallery. Join us before the show for a free creative workshop: https://withfriends.co/event/20867397

Art and performances by: Nicolai / Friendly Spinach / NorthWoods / Codie / Repair Service / Theo Custard / Shifter Visuals / Brayan Pinto / Kriti Singh / Xenon Chameleon / Lichen Labs

Night of the Livecoding Dead is funded in part by the University of Maryland’s Arts For All program.

Saturday, November 2 * 4-6 PM * FREE RSVP

No, not your corporate tech interview type of livecoding: in this workshop you will learn how to create improvised music and video performances using the free, open-source web tools Hydra and Strudel. Coders, artists, & musicians of all levels are welcome. Please bring a laptop and headphones. This workshop will be followed by livecode musicians and artists from all over the East Coast, so stick around in the evening to see livecoding in action. 

More details about performances can be found here: https://withfriends.co/event/20867392

This workshop will be hosted by @digital.sebs and carol dinh.

CANCELLED / SEE YOU NEXT MONTH

First Saturday of the month * 10am-noon * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Friday November 1 * 7pm * $10-25 * TICKETS

Join us for a very special evening of duo collaborations - Kimia Hesabi (viola) and Erin Snedecor (cello), and Abdulrahmann (live calligraphy) with guest musician tbd - in conjunction with the opening of visual art exhibitions by Abdulrahman Naanseh, Mei Mei Chang, and J.S. Adams.

En Route is a dynamic string ensemble that moves seamlessly through music of all kinds—old and new, in both expansive and intimate forms, and everything in between. It is built on a shared passion for the unique sound of strings, evoking nostalgia, joy, and heartache all at once. Each performance by En Route is a carefully crafted journey, designed to stir emotions and tell stories—stories that feel both ancient and new, distant yet intimately familiar. At its core, En Route is a meeting place of cultures and identities, a community that comes together to celebrate the diversity and beauty of the string repertoire and the people who create it. viola: Kimia Hesabi; cello: Erin Murphy Snedecor 

Abdulrahman Naanseh - Passionately delving into the abstraction of thoughts and emotions through captivating symbols, I'm a devoted calligrapher. My main focus is innovating Arabic lettering techniques. I also aspire to explore modern expressions in calligraphy, sharing my experiences as a Syrian artist to bridge cultures through compelling compositions. Breaking from classical norms, I embrace contemporary approaches, infusing letters with cultural and human meanings.

Thursday October 31 * doors at 7, movie at 7:30 * In the backyard * Free / donations * RSVP

Please join us for a Halloween screening of Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922). We will watch a 16mm print courtesy of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Live improvised soundtrack by Novparolo.

Novparolo creates cinematic scores for films which haven’t even been made yet, but which just through their sonic grace conjure a thousand images...It is chamber-synth-pop, but with gentle, futuristic electronica replacing the more traditional sounds and beats which seem only to guide and structure rather than drive the music.