AU Katzen Museum
Check American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center for information on summer exhibitions and review Katzens health and safety protocols before visiting!
Contact Us
Community Relations
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016-8033
United States
In This Issue
Students Move In To Campus For Fall Semester August 21 thru August 28 Welcome and Welcome Back!
Once again, it’s that time of year when new and continuing students return to American University’s campus for the start of a new academic year. Incoming students and their families are expected to arrive on campus during the First-Year Move-in spread out over a two-day period between Sunday, August 21 and Sunday, August 28. Move-in times are between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Cars will be directed to enter both Fletcher and Glover Gates for drop-offs. To minimize disruption to the local community this year, AUPD will partner with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to ensure that signage and enough personnel are present to direct traffic. More than 200 faculty, staff, and volunteers also will be present to facilitate the orderly drop-off of students. Neighbors are invited to volunteer to welcome students to campus.
For more information regarding the move-in days, visit the move-in day page.
Family Movie Night Returns to AU
We are excited to share that we are partnering with Horace Mann Elementary School and will host a fun-filled movie night on Friday, September 23. Bring a picnic and the whole family to campus for an outdoor screening of the animated hit movie, Paws of Fury
The movie will be screened at the Woods-Brown Amphitheatre at 6:30 pm; movie starts at sunset at 7:00 pm. Free popcorn will be provided, and all are welcome to attend. Please RSVP so that we can gather an estimated count of attendees.
For additional information, contact Maria Barry, Director of Community Relations at 885-2146 or mariab@american.edu.
OLLI Fall Registration
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at American University invites you to register for fall classes. Open registration period is from now until September 6, and classes begin the week of September 19.
Lectures and study groups meet for 90 minutes weekly between September and November and are based on the concept of peer learning and teaching. Members come from varied backgrounds with a shared common interest in continuing their learning experiences and intellectual stimulation in an organization of like-minded people.
For a membership fee, participants may enroll in up to four study groups (three before the lottery and a fourth after), either by leading them or attending them. There are no tests and no grades, as members participate purely for the joy of learning. In addition to study groups, OLLI offers a Friday Lecture Series during each semester.
To become a member of OLLI, simply create an account, pay the membership fee, and register for the study groups of your choice during open registration. Membership costs $300 per semester or $550 if you choose to pay for fall and spring. Benefits of becoming an OLLI member include:
- Eligibility to enroll in up to four study groups in a semester (three before the lottery and a fourth after).
- Opportunity for increased social interaction and new friendships based on a shared interest in learning; and informal lunchtime discussions and special events such as open houses or the holiday party.
- Invitation to attend Special Events featuring day trips, museum tours, discussions, and other activities.
- Invitation to attend a holiday party held in December and a springtime social event.
- Access to AU's Bender Library during the academic programs for which you are registered.
- Eligibility for an annual membership at the Jacobs Fitness Center at a discounted rate.
- Eligibility to enroll in February and July “Shorts,” three-to-five-day immersion study groups; and June “Minis,” study groups which are one session per week for four weeks.
- Access to OLLI’s permanent Digital Library, which holds recordings of online classes from previous academic sessions.
Visit the OLLI website for more information and to register for classes.
If you have been a member of OLLI in the past, you may login to renew your membership.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at American University is an association of, by, and for the people in the Washington, DC area who wish to continue to study and learn. OLLI at AU is dedicated to the proposition that learning is a lifelong process, and that curiosity never retires.
The Child Development Center is Accepting Applications for Fall 2022
AU's Child Development Center provides high-quality education and care for children 2-1/2 to 6 years of age. The Center uses a research-based system that offers a comprehensive, evolving set of resources that emphasizes the developmental uniqueness of each child. . For questions, please contact, Beth Root, Director, Child Development Center, eroot@american.edu. To learn more about the Center, follow the link Child Development Center | American University, Washington, DC
Art All Night Returns Volunteers Wanted!
Art All Night returns to Tenleytown on Saturday, September 24, from 7pm to midnight as Tenleytown Main Street celebrates the visual and performing arts, showcasing the diverse talents of our creative community. Public and private spaces throughout Tenleytown will transform once again into pop-up galleries and performance stages to welcome artists from across the DC Metro Area. We look forward to celebrating local artists and performers as we reunite for one of the most exciting nights of the year.
Tenleytown Main Street has hosted Art All Night annually since 2016, featuring hundreds of artists and performers and welcoming 15,000+ art lovers to the business district each year and Tenleytown Main Street wants you to join our volunteer team. Whether you want to help craft the vision for this year's festival, work closely with a single art or performance venue, or prefer to volunteer a couple hours during the event, there are opportunities for every level of interest and availability. All volunteers receive a free t-shirt as a thank-you gift, and get to work with a fun, creative team. Click here (https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C4AADAB28AAF49-artall4) to find out more about Art All Night and see volunteer opportunities or call 202-362-1815.
This year's celebration promises an evening of music, dance, and the visual arts, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and other visual artists; ensembles showcasing dance from around the world; live music, ranging from classical to bluegrass to rock; and an array of martial artists, circus performers, and even mermaids. Art All Night in Tenleytown offers something for every art lover at every age. As always, Art All Night is free to attend.
American University is a proud sponsor of Art All Night in Tenleytown. The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center invites Art All Night attendees to a special after-hours viewing of their early fall exhibitions as part of the festival. Free shuttle service will be available between the museum and the Tenleytown Metro Plaza, connecting visitors to all Art All Night has to offer in Tenleytown.
WAMU Podcast Dish City Earns Prestigious Award Dish City Tackles DC Culture and Social Issues Through its Food
Tam and Fort, both producers at WAMU 88.5, turned on their recorder and captured a breezy, scene-setting conversation as they waited for and enjoyed Styrofoam containers full of cornmeal-crusted fish. The duo’s chemistry—forged as friends and coworkers—was as welcoming as the fried whiting from Horace and Dickie’s, a dish dubbed “1 of the 24 that shaped how DC eats” by the Washington Post in 2018. (Nonetheless, the location they visited would soon close but a store still exists at 6912 4th Street NW in Takoma.)
The scene isn’t unusual for Tam and Fort as they invite listeners to tag along as they explore DC’s culinary culture in their WAMU podcast Dish City, which recently won a prestigious James Beard Award for audio. And while many moments and sometimes even entire episodes feel light and silly—including one this season on bottomless brunch—the conversation often involves a stroll through history that veers towards impactful social topics. The fried fish episode explores gentrification, for example, and how a restaurant like Horace and Dickie’s—a DC institution for more than three decades—felt forced out of a neighborhood that now includes a Whole Foods.
The podcast, which launched in 2019, just wrapped its fourth season. They’ve covered DC and Mid-Atlantic staples like half smokes, jumbo slice, Mumbo sauce, Old Bay seasoning, Maryland blue crabs, and immigrant communities from Ethiopia, El Salvador, Vietnam, and China that have influenced the DMV food scene. They discussed the 1968 DC uprising and its effect on local restaurants, and they pivoted during the pandemic to tell stories of how COVID-19 impacted local businesses. The social discussions—from racism and xenophobia to gentrification to making rent during a pandemic—focus on the DC area, but they are issues that resonate with many communities across the country.
“We probably did have a conversation about the tone of the podcast at the very beginning,” Tam said. “I think we probably were like, ‘How do we want this to feel?’ And there are episodes that we intentionally want to be lighter than others, because they’re about silly, jokey foods that people don’t and shouldn’t take seriously.
“We’re grateful that we’ve been able to show people that this is just how our lives are and this is what our conversations are,” Tam continued. “We can handle tough conversations but also be light-hearted.”
The genesis of Tam and Fort’s friendship began at WAMU, as did the impetus for, Dish City. Tam changed the way she viewed food and culture while producing local food segments for Kojo.
With an interest in food and culture, Tam applied to an NPR podcast competition in 2018 with an idea for a breezy food history game show and asked Fort to sign on to the application— which wasn’t accepted. But Fort pushed to do the show; after the rejection they participated in a WAMU podcast incubator, the thrust of the show evolved into a narrative podcast.
“The way that I think about DC is really informed from my time working in local news and working at the Kojo show,” Tam said. “If it hadn’t been for investing deeply into the District and looking at it through that local lens, I may have just continued to enjoy food for food’s sake. What developed was an interest in understanding why foods are important to certain people, certain neighborhoods, and what histories they have here. What makes them more than a meal to satisfy your hunger and [more of] a cultural touchstone.”
Tam and Fort sat next to each other while working on Nnamdi’s show and shared snacks —Fort likes gummy candies while Tam’s tastes trend toward the savory—and developed the rapport one can hear on the podcast. They also discovered the qualities each bring to the table.
Tam called Fort an empathetic listener and a “technical wizard,” while Fort said Tam is the smartest person he knows and someone who brings humor and levity to the podcast.
“Anytime we work on the show, she always has some bigger thing that I never could have possibly conceived,” Fort said. “She is so incredibly smart, and it’s so impressive to be around. I love that part of working with her.”
Dish City's Beard Award—the Oscars of the food industry—came in the audio programming category for the episode, “How American Chinese Food Became Delivery Food” from a third season in which all episodes dealt with deliveries.
“The whole thing is pretty surreal,” Fort said. “To be honest, I think hosting a podcast sometimes feels like it goes out into the ether. I think it’s cool to know that other people listen to it.”
Dish City’s fourth season just finished, and Tam will be headed to Harvard in August for a year as a Nieman fellow. She will study the rise of first-person reporting through mediums like personal newsletters, social media, and personal branding.
“It’s something that we’re still figuring out,” Tam said of continuing the show. “There are lots of stories that still get left on the table at the end of the season.”
Article written by Jonathan Heeter
Join AU Neighborhood Partnership
Please consider joining the AU Neighborhood Partnership which works to provide a consensus-based forum to resolve issues affecting the communities near American University. Interested members of the community may join one of the Partnership’s five standing working groups, comprising community stakeholders and AU leadership.
If you would like to become a member of a working group, please email communityrelations@american.edu. As always, visit American.edu/communityrelations for more information.