Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Robert Frost’s Winter Poems,”
 an exploration of a beloved poet’s thoughts on the season, with Michael
 Manson, former lecturer on literature at American University and past 
president of the Robert Frost Society.
“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.”
So begins “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” which ranks as one 
of the most popular American poems of the 20th century and helped cement
 Robert Frost's status as of one of our nation’s most beloved poets.
Come to the Hill Center on Capitol Hill as we approach the darkest 
evening of the year for talk that will have you delighting in Frost and 
embracing the arrival of winter.
Winter challenges modern urban Americans less immediately than it did
 Frost, who owned several New England farms. Yet the questions Frost 
raised through the metaphor of winter remain vital. Are humans meant to 
live and thrive on this planet, or is existence some cruel joke? How do 
we explain human resilience, the ability to keep pushing through despite
 the odds? Is there some force above us, in life itself, or some 
stubbornness at the heart of being human? What does it mean to thrive?
Frost raised questions like these in his poetry without answering 
them. For him, the answers are to be found in the process of making. 
Whether we’re writing poems, keeping gardens, playing sports, building 
careers, or raising families, we are all turning chaos into order. In 
all pursuits, Frost said, “strongly spent is synonymous with kept,” and 
he is inspired by those times when humans spend their lives strongly and
 thus keep them.
Be on hand as Michael Manson, a veteran scholar of Frost, reads and 
discusses Frost's poems on winter and other subjects. He’ll cover some 
of Frost’s best-known poems—“Stopping by Woods,” “Desert Places,” “The 
Wood-Pile”—as well as lesser-known works such as “Afterflakes,” 
“Questioning Faces,” and “Good-bye and Keep Cold.” The experience will 
be magical, and you’ll end up with a different perspective on the season
 ahead. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/hill-center-frost-poems" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. 
Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk 
starts 30 minutes later.)
Image by Canva.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Robert Frost's Winter Poems

District of Columbia

Georgetown

District Of Columbia

Profs & Pints DC: Robert Frost's Winter Poems

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Robert Frost’s Winter Poems,”
 an exploration of a beloved poet’s thoughts on the season, with...

Penn Social

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “What We Know About Snow,”
 a meteorologist’s take on the science of snow and snowstorm prediction,
 with Jeffrey Halverson, professor of geography and environmental 
systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of An Introduction to Severe Storms and Hazardous Weather.
Will the weather outside be frightful? Get answers where it’s 
delightful. Penn Social is the place to go to learn of snow, learn of 
snow, learn of snow.
Regardless of whether you’re a winter sports enthusiast who welcomes 
blizzards or someone who spends the season dreaming of an escape to the 
tropics, you can gain a much deeper understanding of the white stuff 
with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Halverson, a severe storm expert with the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang who gave an excellent Profs and Pints talk on hurricanes in November.
A seasoned meteorologist and snow forecaster, he’ll discuss how and 
when snow is formed, describe the different types of snow out there, and
 tell you what determines whether the atmosphere generates snow as 
opposed to sleet or freezing rain. You’ll learn the difference between a
 nuisance “Alberta Clipper” snow event and a blockbuster East Coast 
snowstorm, and why some winter seasons feature memorable—if not 
historical—snowstorms while others have just small snow events or 
experience “snow drought.”
You’ll gain an appreciation of how the science of snowfall is nuanced
 and differs markedly in the Mid Atlantic compared to other notoriously 
snowy regions such as the Great Lakes “snowbelt” or the Rockies and the 
Sierra Nevada. You’ll learn the pitfalls and common traps that people 
fall into in trying to predict snowfall using the data from numerical 
weather prediction models readily available today to casual users. 
Dr. Halverson will tackle the debate over whether the American or 
European weather prediction models do a better job and discuss 
Artificial Intelligence’s entry into the forecast game. Accounts of the 
Washington D.C. region’s most historic snowstorms will be sprinkled in 
for good measure. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-know-snow" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing
 fees. Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. 
The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A bright moment in the aftermath of D.C.’s infamous 1922 Knickerbocker Snowstorm (Library of Congress photo).

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: What We Know About Snow

Profs & Pints DC: What We Know About Snow

Profs and Pints DC presents: “What We Know About Snow,”
 a meteorologist’s take on the science of snow and snowstorm...

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Tolkien’s Fight Against Futurism,”
 a look at a beloved fantasy author as fundamentally engaged in a battle
 to preserve beauty, with Graham McAleer, professor of philosophy at 
Loyola University Maryland and teacher of a course on the morals and 
politics of Lord of the Rings.
As a young man in the early 20th century J.R.R. Tolkien watched an 
avant-garde art form known as Futurism become all the rage. Shaped by 
industrialization and by admiration for new machinery, Futurism 
celebrated speed, acceleration, and the whirl of technical innovation, 
earning it another name, Vorticism, in Tolkien’s England.
Although remembered mainly as a writer, Tolkien also was an 
accomplished pen-and-ink artist who kept abreast of the art movements of
 his time. He developed a distaste for Futurism and what it signified 
that only grew stronger as he experienced the horrors of modern warfare 
as a soldier at the 1916 Battle of the Somme. He regarded what Futurism 
celebrated as “the Machine,” representing fascist politics and 
apocalyptic war, and his opposition to it deeply influenced not just his
 art but his written works.
Gain insights into how Tolkien’s sensibilities as a visual artist 
shaped his worldview and writing with Graham McAleer, a scholar of 
philosophy who has closely studied Tolkien’s work.
Professor McAleer will look at how Tolkien’s lore can be seen as one 
long meditation on beauty and its problematic twin, vanity, with what 
separated them most in Tolkien’s mind being their respective approaches 
to time: Beauty is patient, vanity is not. 
We’ll look at Tolkien’s argument that that impatience mars beauty and
 corrupts our standing in a cosmos, and we’ll consider his 
characterization of his own work as “cosmogonical drama” dealing with 
the universe’s origins. You’ll learn how his tales of Dark Lords 
squaring off against elven queens and genial Hobbits reflect his view 
that war is always a dispute about beauty. 
You’ll come to see Tolkien as having grappled with a profound 
philosophical question that dates back to Plato, and you’ll emerge from 
the talk with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of Tolkien’s 
works. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-tolkien-futurism" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. 
Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk 
starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A bust of Tolkien at Oxford. From a photo by Julian Nyča / Wikimedia Commons.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Tolkien’s Fight Against Futurism

Profs & Pints DC: Tolkien’s Fight Against Futurism

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Tolkien’s Fight Against Futurism,”
 a look at a beloved fantasy author as fundamentally engaged...

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" rel="nofollow">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Queer Country,” on
 the long, often-hidden presence of LGBTQ+ performers in country music, 
with Tanya Olson, lecturer in English and scholar of gender and 
sexuality studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.&nbsp;
Although country music is often thought of as conservative, rural, 
and straight, queer artists have always been part of its story.&nbsp;
Learn about the important role that queer artists, their ideas, and 
their experiences have played in country music with Tanya Olson, a 
cultural critic whose recent work explores the intersection of country 
music, identity, and tradition.&nbsp;
She’ll talk about queer artists across generations, describing how 
they are hidden and what it means to stand in the circle of tradition 
without being seen. She’ll explore how queerness shows up in the songs, 
stories, and sounds of country music even when it isn’t named, and also 
what’s at stake when those threads are left out of the history we tell.
You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of country music’s past, as 
well as a sharper eye for who’s been missing from the picture all along.
 You’ll gain an appreciation for why inclusion in country radio and the 
Grand Ole Opry matters, as well as an understanding of how a queer 
presence might strengthen, rather than threaten, country music's 
legacy.&nbsp;
Olson’s latest book of poetry, Born Backwards, builds on the
 language and imagery of country music to ask who gets remembered and 
why. Learning from her will make for a memorable evening. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-queer-country" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Door: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image: Country artist k.d. lang performs in 2008 as part of the 
Cambridge Folk Festival (Photo by Bryan Ledgard / Creative Commons).&nbsp;

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Queer Country

Profs & Pints DC: Queer Country

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Queer  Country,” on
 the long, often-hidden presence of LGBTQ+ performers in country music, 
with...

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" rel="nofollow">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “A Practical Guide to Social Change,”
 a research-based look at how communities bring about reform and 
progress, with Marissa Robinson, founder of Real Health Impact LLC and 
an adjunct professor at George Washington University who teaches courses
 focused on public health leadership and social change.&nbsp;
Systems built on inequality rarely transform without deliberate 
pressure from the people most committed to justice, because progress 
takes coordination, conviction and willingness to change what has always
 been accepted. Real change starts when people choose to move 
together.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Learn what research and experience say about how to make real social 
progress with Dr. Marissa Robinson, a public health practitioner who 
previously worked in federal agencies coordinating global and national 
public health initiatives focused on infectious diseases, HIV, and 
health equity.&nbsp;
Among the key questions she’ll tackle: How do communities overcome 
barriers to create real change? When should evidence guide decisions and
 when does context matter more?&nbsp;
She’ll discuss established frameworks for moving from intention to 
measurable progress and talk about the importance of building coalitions
 that actually work and of making decisions grounded in real data. 
You’ll learn about the importance of testing ideas on a small scale 
before going big, as well as how to use rapid feedback loops and 
continuous improvement cycles to refine approaches and scale what truly 
works.&nbsp;
Dr. Robinson will share stories of ordinary people and communities 
who refused to accept the status quo and pushed through real barriers to
 achieve breakthrough results. She’ll talk about practical strategies, 
usable frameworks, and evidence-based examples that people can apply 
immediately in their own communities and organizations to support change
 that lasts.&nbsp;
If you have dreamed about bringing about progress in your world, this
 talk will give you the clarity, direction, and confidence it takes to 
turn such dreams into reality. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-social-change" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets:</a> $13.50 plus sales tax 
and processing fees. Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is
 for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image by Canva.

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: A Practical Guide to Social Change

Profs & Pints DC: A Practical Guide to Social...

Profs and Pints DC presents: “A Practical Guide to Social Change,”
 a research-based look at how communities bring about reform...

Profs & Pints DC: A Practical Guide to Social Change

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “How Africans Fought Slavery,”
 on the hidden history of resistance to the Transatlantic Slave Trade 
among those targeted by it, with Richard Bell, professor of history at 
the University of Maryland, College Park.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the largest forced migration in 
human history. In all, more than 12 million African men, women, and 
children were kidnapped and made to board European ships destined for 
the New World. 
Generally left out of our history books is the fact that African 
people fought the Transatlantic Slave Trade from the moment raiders 
approached their villages throughout every stage of the deadly Middle 
Passage.
Join Profs and Pints fan favorite Richard Bell for a talk that turns 
the slave trade’s history inside out by examining the huge varieties of 
African resistance to this 400-year-long nightmare.
He’ll discuss how African people fought capture through fortified 
villages, armed flight, and deception awareness. Their struggle to stay 
free involved rebellions inside African coastal forts, hundreds of 
shipboard mutinies, hunger strikes, and mass drownings.
You’ll learn how African suicides and revolts, as well as the 
constant threat of captive rebellion, forced European traders to spend 
enormous sums on weaponry, guards, surveillance, and ship redesign. Such
 costs, historians now calculate, saved more than a million Africans 
from ever being trafficked across the Atlantic.
Far from being helpless victims of an unstoppable system, African 
captives proved relentlessly defiant, leaving a record that reshapes our
 understanding of the trade and the roots of African American 
resistance. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/africans-fought-slavery" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees.
 Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk
 starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: The slave ship La Amistad, site of a famous mutiny by the slaves on board. (Artist unknown / Wikimedia Commons.)

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: How Africans Fought Slavery

Profs & Pints DC: How Africans Fought Slavery

Profs and Pints DC presents: “How Africans Fought Slavery,”
 on the hidden history of resistance to the Transatlantic Slave...

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc" rel="nofollow">Profs and Pints DC</a> presents: “Wink, Nod, Kill,”
 a look at implicit calls for violence and other speech that leads to 
bloodshed and threatens democracy, with Kurt Braddock, assistant 
professor of communications at American University and expert on 
terrorism.
Over the last decade, President Donald Trump and many of his allies 
have used language that implicitly advocates for the use of violence 
without directing it outright. From telling the Proud Boys to “stand 
back and stand by” to suggesting that legal acts of Democratic lawmakers
 should be “punishable by death,” Trump has consistently suggested that 
violence is a viable means of addressing political grievances.
Support for political violence—implicit or explicit—goes beyond the 
sort of spirited debate and disagreement upon which the American 
experiment was founded. It represents a gray area in the connection 
between violent language and violent acts, an area that Kurt Braddock 
has spent years studying.
Learn about research on the connection between real bloodshed and 
coded language, dogwhistles, and implicit calls for violence with Dr. 
Braddock, who has conducted research on communication and terrorism for 
several national and international organizations, including the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of State, and the 
United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism.
Professor Braddock will give his audience a firm grounding in the 
concept of “stochastic terrorism,” or political violence spawned by 
vague calls to violent action. Tapping into decades of research on 
communication and decision-making and accounts of specific violent acts 
inspired by implicit orders, he’ll show us that the threat posed by 
implicit calls to violence is real.
He’ll discuss whether implicit calls for violence represent a “new” 
form of political communication protected by the First Amendment, and 
he’ll describe the real-world dangers posed by these kinds of 
statements.
Among the questions Dr. Braddock will tackle: Why do politicians use 
this language if they can reasonably assume that someone may be 
motivated by it to hurt someone else? Perhaps most importantly, what can
 we do about it, especially given the sacrosanctity of the First 
Amendment?
His talk promises to give you a much more sophisticated understanding
 of recent events and a clearer sense of what might lie ahead. (<a href="https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/wink-nod-kill" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Advance tickets</a>: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Door: $17, or $15 
with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes 
later.)
Image: Right-wing pundit and podcaster Steve Bannon routinely uses 
violent rhetoric. (Photo by Nordiske Mediedager / Creative Commons. )

Local Event: Profs & Pints DC: Wink, Nod, Kill

Profs & Pints DC: Wink, Nod, Kill

Profs and Pints DC presents: “Wink, Nod, Kill,”
 a look at implicit calls for violence and other speech that leads to...

Peter Schmidt

Washington Metropolitan Area

Arlington County

Arlington

Rosslyn

Virginia

Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn

Clarendon

Washington DC

Michael O'Connell

Ballston

Fairfax County

Patch AM Team

Seven Corners

Bailey's Crossroads

Alexandria city

Del Ray

Montgomery County

Bethesda-Chevy Chase

Maryland

Oh, the weather outside is frightful - but holiday drinks are delightful. Pretty soon's our holiday show...and you should go,...

Comedy Holiday Extravaganza


The full Master Chorale returns for our holiday concert tradition! Gather the family and join us for Thine Own Sweet Light,...

Washington Master Chorale's Holiday Concert


The beloved annual NCE tradition returns with a joyful celebration for the whole family featuring Leroy Anderson's Sleigh...

Holiday Cheer!

The full Master Chorale returns in December to present Thine Own Sweet Light, an entirely a cappella concert featuring the rich...

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Posting Activity

Profs & Pints DC: Robert Frost's Winter Poems

DEC

18

6:00 PM

Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: What We Know About Snow

JAN

5

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: Tolkien’s Fight Against Futurism

JAN

6

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: Queer Country

JAN

12

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: A Practical Guide to Social Change

JAN

19

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: How Africans Fought Slavery

JAN

20

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Profs & Pints DC: Wink, Nod, Kill

JAN

26

6:00 PM

Penn Social, 801 E St NW, Washington, DC

Comedy Holiday Extravaganza

Washington Master Chorale's Holiday Concert

Holiday Cheer!

Washington Master Chorale's Holiday Concert