Shakespeare's Birthday and the Climate Rally

The weekend of April 23, 23, and 25 was a really happening weekend here in D.C, there seemed to be all sorts of fun things going on, the Folger-Shakespeare Library Open House, the Climate Rally, the Smithsonian Crafts Fair, a Vintage Poster Sale, the Emerson String Quartet playing. It was one of those weekends where I really wanted to do it all. I had a friend who came to D.C. for the climate rally. Actually, some of the smaller colleges in the Midwest provided whirlwind trips to D.C. to participate in the rally, my friend goes to Oberlin—which of course sent a bus! We went to the Folger-Shakespeare Library open house, which was full of people in costume and interactive stations (geared toward children but fun nonetheless). We learned about the printing press, and got to make Shakespeare birthday cards, and got a lesson in extra illustration, a popular way to present Shakespeare in the 1800s. We also got tattoos of Shakespeare on a Birthday Cake. But by far the best part was just seeing all the old books scholars had on reserve just, sitting there, being out in the open. I wish I had a reason to use that library. After spending the morning at the library, my friend and I went to the Climate rally, which had everything from dirty hippies to Avatar face painting. My friend is biochemistry major, so we spent a fair amount of time at the Climate Day sponsored poster session, looking at science projects. Quite frankly, it was all a little above my history-music-politics brain. The rally was exciting and full of enthusiasm from the dirty hippies. But after a while, our enthusiasm died in the heat and crowded grass, and we sought refuge at the Shakler Gallery of Asian Art. This is a smaller Smithsonian gallery, near the Castle. The collection was sparse, but widespread. Currently, they have a Tibetan monastery on display, full of meditation objects and dharma transcriptions. I enjoy Asian religious art, because I had this really interesting class on Asian culture, religion and aesthetics, so its fun to be able to recognize symbols and figures I learned about in class.

LM

LM