You are here: American University Community Relations Newsletter October 2019 Neighborhood Newsletter

AU in the Neighborhood

October 2019

All-American Weekend, October 4 - 6

People standing with Clawed the Eagle

American University’s annual All-American Weekend will take place October 4 – 6, with more than 40 events planned throughout the weekend. Open to alumni, families, students, and community members, the occasion celebrates the memories, the fun, and the future of AU.

The university anticipates increased activity around campus during the weekend, as families, alumni, and friends visit for the occasion.

The weekend gives alumni and families the opportunity to explore the campus together. Alumni can reconnect with friends they haven't seen in years, and families will discover more about student life at AU.

All-American weekend is hosted annually by the Office of Alumni Relations and Office of the Dean of Students.

For more information on all the planned events, please visit the All-American Weekend website.

“American University Planning 101” Session on Nov. 5

People listen during an AU Planning 101 meeting

American University invites neighbors, students, faculty, and staff to the “American University Planning 101” Sessions on November 5 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Butler Board Room. The session is an opportunity to engage with the entire campus community on various facets of planning.

The session will focus on "AU and Our Campus: Shaping the Future." Through collaborative group discussions, we will consider various elements of a campus plan and exchange ideas about what could benefit AU and the campus community. Contribute your voice to the future of American University's campus.

The Planning 101 Session is part of a series of stakeholder meetings designed to help foster healthy and constructive dialogue around planning at American University. 

Light dinner and refreshments will be served. RSVP by email to communityrelations@american.edu.

Farmers' Market Returns and Features New Bakery

Assortment of vegetables in baskets

Rain, snow, or sun, every Wednesday from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., AU’s farmers’ market is a fixture in the quad space around the Mary Graydon Center. Students, faculty, staff, and neighbors can browse goods ranging from farm-fresh vegetables to homemade breads and desserts.

The market is a coordinated effort between AU and Pennsylvania-based Agora Farms, an intermediary for bringing Amish and Mennonite and “English” farm goods to AU’s campus as well as to D.C.’s historic Eastern Market on Saturdays and Sundays.

New to AU’s Farmers’ Market, Ravenhook Bakehouse offers a variety of hearth-baked, European-style breads and pastries as well as fresh-brewed coffee. The DC-based bakery is committed to the old world-style of bread making, relying on centuries-old techniques to produce delicious, healthy, and grain-forward breads.

In addition to supporting locally-grown food, the convenience of having fresh food right on campus makes it a great benefit not only to the campus community but to the surrounding neighborhood as well.

Off-Campus Students Learn Good Neighbor Tips

Students at meeting, listening to speaker

American University’s Office of Community Relations held its annual Off-Campus Living orientation recently, as students returned for the fall semester. University administrators at the orientation covered a wide range of topics including a review of students’ rights and responsibilities as good neighbors, the importance of maintaining appropriate noise levels, proper trash disposal, renters’ rights, and tips on how to be proactive members of the local community.

As in previous years, the orientation was a collaborative effort between the Office of Community Relations, Greek and Sorority Life, Athletics, Public Safety, Housing and Dining, and the Dean’s Office.

2019-20 Basketball Season Tickets On Sale Now

Season tickets on sale now

Secure your 2019-20 basketball season tickets today, as Coach Mike Brennan’s Eagles look to take back the Patriot League trophy and return to the NCAA tournament.  

All season ticket holders receive:

  • Reserved seats to all 13 men’s home games
  • Priority seating to postseason games
  • Priority for NCAA tournament tickets
  • AU Women's Basketball season tickets

Packages are priced as low as $50 and only $200 for the best chairback seats along the sideline for all 26 men’s and women’s basketball home games in Bender Arena. Season ticket holders receive savings off the individual game price, guaranteeing fans the same great seats for all Men’s and Women’s Basketball games in Bender Arena.

Also available for purchase are 2019-20 Women’s Basketball season tickets. General admission season tickets for the Women’s Basketball team are $80 for adults, $50 for youth (17 and below) and seniors (65-plus), a savings of more than 23 percent off face value for 13 home games.

Benefits for all season ticket packages include the full exchange for games you cannot make, as well as discounts and special benefits throughout the year. All season ticket holders receive priority ticketing for all national postseason tournament games. Home basketball games are free of charge for all AU students with a valid AU ID.

To purchase tickets, visit the . Tickets also can be purchased in person at the Bender Arena Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

For further inquiries on season ticket packages, call (202) 885-TIXX (8499) or e-mail clawed@american.edu.

Calendar and Events

Grace Hartigan and Helene Herzbrun: Reframing Abstract Expressionism

Now – December 15
AU Katzen Museum

Grace Hartigan and Helene Herzbrun were both remarkable painters of the second Abstract-Expressionist generation who lived and worked as influential artists and teachers in the Baltimore/Washington region for many decades. Although they began their careers as gestural abstractionists in the mold of Pollock and de Kooning, both went on to reinvent and revitalize the signature styles of the Ab-Ex movement in powerful and personal ways. They were enabled to do so in large part by their self-selected, “outside-of-New York” locale, which permitted each of these very different artists to develop her own dialogue with painting, away from the shifting fashions and pressures of the commercial mainstream. This show brings together more than two dozen large-scale and rarely seen works by Hartigan and Herzbrun from private and public collections, many in the Baltimore/Washington area. It redirects attention to the local contexts and communities in which these works were produced and deepens understanding of the relationship between mainstream modernist movements such as Ab-Ex and their rich regional transformations.

Topographies of Life: Pam Rogers, Lynn Sures, Mel Watkin

Now – December 15
AU KatzenMuseum

Using the medium of drawing to varied and distinctive effect, Rogers, Sures, and Watkin trace human connections to the natural world – across time and varied landscapes. From depictions of the deserts of Kenya, forests of the Midwest, to the Potomac watershed, these artists are deeply attuned to the mutually affecting relationship between the anthropological and natural worlds.

Prints & Artists: WD Printmaking Workshop 1970-Present

Now – October 20
AU Katzen Museum

This exhibition traces the evolution of the DC-based WD Printmaking workshop, which began with Percy and Alice Martin’s opening their Adams Morgan home as a collaborative artists’ studio fifty years ago. The aim was to create a place where all artists (not necessarily trained in printmaking) could come together to explore the printmaking craft and create original prints. Emphasis was placed on experimentation and innovation. The studio was open to the artists twenty-four hours a day. The workshop moved with Martin and his family into the basement of their home on Lamont Street in Mount Pleasant. The WD Workshop ran classes, presented demonstrations, and held regularly scheduled critique sessions. Artists came and went during all hours of the day and night. Participating WD artists achieved successful printmaking careers working in diverse styles. The exhibit features historical and recent work by members of the workshop.

Moves Like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection

Now – December 15
AU Katzen Museum

This collection is a product of Director and Curator Jack Rasmussen’s spring course on curatorial practice. Graduate students in art history, arts management, and studio art curated a playful and provocative interpretation of the 9,000-piece gift from the Corcoran. The exhibition is inspired by Walter Hopps, briefly the Director of the Corcoran and an erratic but seminal American curator of contemporary art. The curators have divided their responses into five sub-groups, Boundless: Existing Within Ambiguous Space, The Road Home, The Selfless Spirit: Nature vs. Nurture and the Effects of Motherhood in the Corcoran Collection, American Legacy: Reconsidering Non-Western Subjects in the Corcoran Collection, and Redefining the Gaze: Shifting the Power.

Yoga in the Galleries

October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 10 – 11 a.m.
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

Led by certified Kripalu Yoga teacher Eva Blutinger, this yoga class provides mental clarity and relaxation in the peaceful surroundings of our art galleries. Please bring a mat. Cost is $10 for non-members, $5 for museum members, and free for members at the Associates level and above. .

Farmers’ Market

October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Quad Space in front of Mary Graydon Center

Every Wednesday, the quad space around the Mary Graydon building buzzes with activity as students, faculty, staff, and neighbors browse goods ranging from farm-fresh vegetables to homemade breads and desserts at the AU Farmers' Market. The market is a coordinated effort between AU and Pennsylvania-based Agora Farms.  Ravenhook Bakehouse also offers a variety of hearth-baked, European-style breads and pastries as well as fresh-brewed coffee.

INTERFERENCE Concert

October 3, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
AU Museum, Katzen Arts Center

The musical collective INTERFERENCE will present contemporary and classical works that draw connections to the notion of process music, including minimalism, algorithmic music, and chance determinism. Featuring a combination of acoustic and digital music instruments, computer performers, and visual components, INTERFERENCE explores this terrain with a distinct intermedia focus. Free and open to all, no RSVP required.

Theatre: Shared Space

October 3,4, 6, 8 – 10 p.m.
Katzen Studio Theatre

This play takes a humorous, sobering, and occasionally painful look at the compelling issues of 1968 – war, racial strife, women’s liberation, radical politics, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll – through the eyes of thirteen college roommates. Free and open to all. RSVP: auarts@american.edu.

Women’s Volleyball vs. Bucknell University

October 5, 2 – 4 p.m.
Bender Arena

Docent-led Museum Tour

October 6, 12, 20, 2 – 3 p.m.AU Katzen Museum

A docent-led tour of one or more of our current exhibitions. No RSVP required. Please meet at the front desk.

Women’s Soccer vs. College of the Holy Cross

October 6, 2 – 4 p.m.
Reeves Field

Women’s Soccer vs. UMBC

October 9, 3 – 5 p.m.
Reeves Field

Don’t Mute DC: Go-Go, Gentrification, and Resistance to Cultural Erasure

October 10, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Mary Graydon Center, The Wechsler Theater

Dr. Natalie Hopkinson’s book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City gives a social history of black Washington told through its go-go music and culture, and how gentrification pushed go-go into D.C.’s suburbs. The Chocolate City is in decline, but its heart, D.C.’s distinctive go-go musical culture, continues to beat. Dr. Hopkinson will discuss the history of go-go music and how the #DontMuteDC movement evolved into a more extensive conversation about gentrification, culture, and racial justice. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public. Register .

International Day Against the Death Penalty

October 10, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
Kay Main Chapel

In commemoration of International Day Against the Death Penalty, School of Communication Professors Maggie Stogner and Rick Stack will present their documentary, In the Executioner's Shadow. The film will be followed by a panel discussion.  Experts invited to participate include: Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking; Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; and Jerry Givens, the documentary's title character. Welcoming comments will be offered by representatives from the event's co-sponsors, the Provost's Office and the European Union Delegation. Light refreshments will be available at a reception in the Kogod student lounge following the event.

Men’s Soccer vs. Boston University

October 11, 2 – 4 p.m.
Reeves Field

Field Hockey vs. College of the Holy Cross

October 11, 4 – 6 p.m.
Jacobs Field

Swimming & Diving vs. Loyola University

October 12, 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Large Pool

Field Hockey vs. VCU

October 13, 12 – 2 p.m.
Jacobs Field

Katzen Soundbites - How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

October 15, 12:35 – 12:55 p.m.
Katzen Rotunda (lobby)

The cast of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will perform selections from the Pulitzer-Prize winning musical satire. Katzen Soundbites is the Music Library's series of lunchtime concerts. Performers are students, faculty, and staff from the Department of Performing Arts and the Library. Soundbites is a collaboration between the AU Library and the Department of Performing Arts.

A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion Book Talk with Tom Segev 

 Tuesday, October 15, 2019 6:00-7:30 PM
 Abramson Family Founders Room, SIS Building 

The Center for Israel Studies invites you to hear Tom Segev, Israel historian, author, and journalist, who will discuss his new biography of David Ben-Gurion, highlighting the history of Zionism and Israel. Tom Segev is one of Israel's most established journalists, with a number of books in the New York Times’ Best Books of the Year lists. Books for sale and signing at dessert reception after the event. 

Free with RSVP: 
Contact: Laura Cutler, cutler@american.edu, 202-885-3780 
Facebook event: 

Theatre: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

October 17, 18, 8 – 10 p.m.; October 19, 2 – 4, 8 – 10 p.m.; October 25, 8 – 10 p.m.; October 26, 2 – 4 p.m., 8 – 10 p.m.
Greenberg Theatre

This Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical classic is an irreverent, hilarious, and tuneful satire of sex and big business. Following the advice of a self-help book, an ambitious window washer becomes chairman of the board. For tickets, visit: .

Swimming & Diving vs. Georgetown University

October 18, 5 – 7 p.m.
Large Pool

Family Day at the AU Museum

October 19, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
AU Museum, Katzen Arts Center

The AU Museum invites people of all ages to the Fall Family Fun Day. All activities are free and inspired by our current exhibitions. Create hands-on art projects, explore art with a scavenger hunt, take a tour with one of our guides, listen and participate in storytelling and music-making, and more. The events are all free. Please register in advance and check-in at the door. You do not need to print your Eventbrite ticket. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Register .

Women’s Soccer vs. Army West Point

October 19, 1 – 3 p.m.
Reeves Field

Gorenman Bach Project: Yuliya Gorenman, Piano

October 19, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Abramson Family Recital Hall

Following last season’s performance of the epic Well-Tempered Clavier, internationally acclaimed pianist and AU musician-in-residence Yuliya Gorenman continues to explore Bach’s greatest keyboard masterworks with three partitas and the beloved Italian Concerto. Fee: $25. RSVP .

Men’s Soccer vs. West Virginia University

October 22, 2 – 4 p.m.
Reeves Field

Women’s Volleyball vs. Loyola University

October 22, 7 – 9 p.m.
Bender Arena

Women’s Soccer vs. United States Naval Academy

October 23, 3 – 5 p.m.
Reeves Field

Women’s Volleyball vs. Army West Point

October 25, 7 – 9 p.m.
Bender Arena

Men’s Soccer vs. Colgate University

October 26, 1 – 3 p.m.
Reeves Field

Women’s Volleyball vs. Colgate University

October 26, 4 – 6 p.m.
Bender Arena

Field Hockey vs. University of Maryland

October 29, 3 – 5 p.m.
Jacobs Field