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The weekly Drum Circle has been going on for nearly 50 years, and is one of the coolest events in the city, with the most diverse section of drummers, acrobats, and dancers. Come to hang out and enjoy the vibe, or bring your drum and join in the jam session!
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aka Malcolm X Park
A 12-acre park centered on a long, stunning, cascading waterfall, surrounded by European-style terraced landscaping, and administered by the National Park Service. The grounds have long been an esteemed commodity in the city, first surrounding an 1819 mansion that became President James Quincy's home following his presidency. Around 1900, Mary Foote Henderson, who owned the land, petitioned Congress to move the White House to or establish the Lincoln Memorial at Meridian Hill, since the National Mall was just north of the putrid stench of the mosquito and sewage-infested Washington City Canal in Waterfront. The plan didn't pass the House of Representatives. However, she did convince Congress to create a park and, in 1910, the federal government purchased the ground and later converted it into the extravagant Italianate park that you see today. After the 1968 DC riots, the park was a haven for open-air drug markets, which got worse and worse throughout the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Following the murder of a teenager in 1990, the community decided to take back control of the park, and organized regular citizen patrols throughout the day and night. They were very successful, and the park is quite safe today. The sword from the statue of Joan of Arc—the only female equestrian statue in the city— was stolen and replaced several times.
Weekly swing dancing in the Josephine Butler Parks Center, a 1920s marble-filled mansion that once housed the Brazilian and Hungarian Embassies. The weekly event attracts most of the dedicated swing dancers from the area and there are always a couple top notch instructors around to get beginners started for free. The limited number of window air conditioning units and restrictions on opening the windows due to noise can make the dance floor as hot as a sauna in the summer, but free ices are provided. BYOB.
Housed in the beautiful former Embassy of Mexico, the cultural center has a nice collection of Mexican artwork, and puts on frequent classical and other musical performances, as well as film screenings, lectures, and other events. The gallery and many of the events are free but some require hefty donations.
Contrary to popular belief, this huge two-story mural is not of the famous French painter, it is a mural reproduction of one of his paintings. The man in question is Aristide Bruant, a then-popular French cabaret performer.