You’re invited to our garden gatherings, Harrison happenings, and more!
The U Street Neighborhood Association supports a wide range of programming in Temperance Alley — from ecology classes to music in the garden to writing workshops and more. All are welcome to host a public & non-commercial gathering in our shared backyard. We also co-host and promote various community events across the U Street Corridor, including at Harrison Recreation Center. Signing up for our newsletter is the easiest way to make sure you never miss out on an event.
Upcoming Events
Battle of Adwa Commemorative Gathering
Please join us in celebrating the 129th anniversary of the historic pan-African victory won by King Menelik II and Queen Taytu Betul of Ethiopia. Honoring the memory of Tamrat Medhin who first began this annual celebration over 20 years ago. To be followed by a meal at Habesha Restaurant. Featuring presentations from local living-historian Marquett Awa-Milton, Griot Elder Baba-C, and spoken poetry by Ruben Robinson. At the African-American Civil War Memorial (U St & Vermont Ave).
Garden Volunteer Hours
Our final week before plant bebes arrive, let’s finish our soil prep and do some clean-up around the Garden.
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
2025 Mas Star Community Health Fair
On Saturday, April 5th, 2025, the DC Prince Hall Familyis hosting our 1st Annual Community Health Fair and Summit at the Historic Prince Hall Masonic Temple on U Street. Doors open at 10am. These events are Free and open to the public!
The Health Fair will provide the public with access to various health related resources and services including health screenings, colorectal home kits, eye exams, home care delivery services, orthopedic evaluations and much more!
The Health Summit will feature a panel discussion to raise public awareness on health and wellness topics with local medical physicians, healthcare professionals, community health organizations and government officials
Also, our Veterans Affairs Committee is co-hosting a Veterans Assistance Exposition during the Community Health Fair. This event will assist veterans with filing claims for their military benefits with Veterans Affairs offices like the Department of Veterans Affairs for Minority Veterans, DC VA Medical Center and DC Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.
TAG HouseKeeping Circle
Our first official calendaring meeting of the year – let’s start off strong in April.
Bring any business you may have or partner with at Stump Fellow to program your submitted event ideas. Anyone can join as we discuss garden event planning, budgeting, and partnerships. Your ideas and energy are more than welcome!
*HouseKeeping Circles happen at the end of each month, they are the functional meetings where we calendar events for the next month of programming, approve any new spending, and can vote to change any Garden policies if needed. These meetings have official minutes that keep a record of our decisions and are shared with the rest of the U Street Neighborhood Association for transparency.
TRANSPLANT DAY 🌱 Garden Volunteer Hours
The moment you’ve all been waiting for… INTRODUCING, our new SPRING PLANT BEBES!
That’s right, TRANSPLANT DAY 🌱 2025 is on April 12th from 10am-2pm. Our veggie seedlings will be arriving from the greenhouse at the University of Maryland and will need a whole crew of hands to get them safely tucked and watered into our raised beds at Temperance Alley.
Plus we’ll be celebrating the official start to Spring programming by vesting of our new crop of Stump Fellows 🦺 in a little side ceremony for the community.
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Garden Volunteer Hours
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Garden Volunteer Hours
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Garden Volunteer Hours
Our first communal work day, let’s prep the garden beds and maybe plant a few early season greens?
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Spring Equinox 🌸 Letter Writing
Spring has Sprung!
Come see what’s blooming in the Garden and celebrate the Sun passing the equator. We’ll cast out the old and set intentions for the new. If you wrote a letter last year come receive it and send a new one to yourself in Summer.
Feel free to bring a baked good to share with the neighbors, but no stress if not.
hosted by Josh
Stump Fellowship '25 Fireside Chat
Calling all kind-hearted, soil-stained, local-loving, service-oriented folks – are you willing and able to step into Garden leadership for the 2025 growing season?
This backyard gathering is your chance to meet last year’s Stump Fellows, ask as many questions as you like, and see whether our 8-month program is right for you. Roll through & claim your role.
hosted by Aaron & Josh
USNA Annual Board Elections & Pizza Party
The U Street Neighborhood Association is hosting our annual board of directors elections and pizza party on Thursday January 30th. All are welcome to come celebrate the neighbors who are volunteering to lead our programming, advocacy, and stewardship efforts in 2025. After electing the new Board, we’ll spend some time envisioning how we want to create for and with the neighborhood this year.
Queer Black Broadway Walking Tour
This Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Off the Mall Tours is partnering with the Rainbow History Project to bring you the Queer Black Broadway walking tour. The U Street Corridor was known as "Black Broadway" in its heyday of the early 20th Century. From the Prohibition Era to the Civil Rights Movement, it was also the center for social justice and fringe movements that fought to bring more opportunity for marginalized groups, including a secretive but active Queer community that was associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the Pansy Craze, and the Civil Rights Movement, including the planner of the March for Jobs and Freedom Bayard Rustin, a gay black man. This 1.5 hour walking tour begins at Howard Theater and ends at Thurst Lounge, 2204 14th Street, which is DC's only queer black-owned bar! A portion of proceeds go to benefit the Rainbow History Project.
The Rainbow History Project’s mission is to collect, preserve, and promote an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture of metropolitan Washington DC’s diverse LGBTQ+ communities. You can find more information about them at https://www.rainbowhistory.org/.
Sunset Soul 🌅 CHRISTMAS edition
A Monday music flashback from U Street’s Christmas past, present, and future.
You’ll experience music that connects with your holiday soul like the Blackbyrds, The Emotions, Tom Tom Club, George Clinton, and Ohio Players. Sampling songs you would’ve heard around Christmas time during the ‘60s–’90s. These aren’t just any songs—they come with all the story.
Let’s gather under the warmth of the StoryCircle dome, with lights and tea provided!
Hosted by DJ Kat Kat, aka the soldier of U Street, Marquett Milton
Holly-Day Tree Decorating & Winter Celebration
‘Tis the season to gather in recognition of all end-of-year festivities…
Come prepare for Winter Solstice (which falls on Saturday, December 21st this year) & help decorate our Holly Tree with bird-friendly treats. We’ll sing some carols and stay warm with hot cocoa.
For those of you that wrote a letter to yourself during the Autumn Equinox, we’ll deliver them back to you and write a new one to the Spring!
Warm drinks and light snacks will be served – BYO thermos if you can in addition to any ornaments, trinkets, or knick knacks you'd like to hang.
*CANCELLED* Yoga in the Garden : starry sessions 🌌
CLASS IS CANCELLED*
These facilitator-led, donation-suggested sessions will be cozy & light under the star-filled sky. Perfect for late Autumn grounding and centering.
Please check the weather and dress appropriately for an evening flow. Bring yourself, water, clothes to stay warm, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).
Mulching Day 🪵📦Volunteer Hours
Help us get the Garden’s raised beds hunkered down for Winter >>
Join Farm the District for this end-of-season activity. Bring any extra cardboard you may have lying around, and we'll try to do some sheet mulching where we can. It’s a great method to keep the weeds back and add some organic matter to the soil. Plus you’ll be able to bury a few tulip bulbs somewhere to return to in the Spring.
Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard. Welcome neighbors!
Yoga in the Garden
Temperance Alley Garden’s FINAL CLASS OF THE YEAR
All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).
Lunch Hours
WFH? Work close by? Bring your lunch to the Garden and chat with folks from the neighborhood!
Open lunch hours hosted by Nina :)
Backyard Games
Come one come all to play in our shared backyard. Feel free to bring lawn games, board games, or anything else you can dream up.
Garden Volunteer Hours
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure. And don’t forget to take home your share of the communal harvest.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Music in the Garden! ft. Silence Echoez, No Cheese
Featuring Silence Echoez, & No Cheese !!!
Silence Echoez is a singer/songwriter from the DC are whose tunes come in flavors from café ambience to protest anthem. His music and his message emphasize reflection and action, combining influences such as Citizen Cope and Dispatch with icons such as Train and Bob Marley. As the drummer for bands such as ilyAIMY and Emma G, he approaches songwriting with a nuanced sense of rhythm that often incorporates the influences of these original groups as well.
No Cheese is a Pop Power Pop trio with roots in Southeastern PA. All of the concepts and motifs reflected in the group’s music are informed by the trio’s history together after over a decade of friendship. The group is composed of Matthew Gargano on vocals and lead guitar, Sara Mack on vocals and bass guitar, and Connor Gephart on drums. The members of No Cheese have strong ties to TAG and are excited to play there for the second time!
Join the Garden plants and critters for an evening of home-grown music –– somewhere between a house show and barnyard jam. While tipping is encouraged, the event is free and open to all. Bring a blanket to sit on and snacks to share :)
produced by Stephen
Gay's Garden Comedy Showcase
🌈 Calling all hoes and fruits! We’ve got BIG news!! Temperance Alley Garden is an ally no longer—welcome to Temperance Gay Garden! 🎉 Join us for Gays’ Garden, starring the funniest queers from the DMV and beyond!
🌟 Featuring acts seen at The DC improv, Hotbed and the Comedy Loft: Demi Andrews, Stacey Axler, Lucas Craig with host Netanel Hutman.
📍 Located around the corner from the U Street Metro (13th Street exit) 💸 Suggested donation: $10 :)
Hosted by Netanel
Donation Harvest for Martha’s Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to beat the heat and give back to the community.
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.
Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.
Yoga in the Garden
All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).
Lunch Hours
WFH? Work close by? Bring your lunch to the Garden and chat with folks from the neighborhood!
Open lunch hours hosted by Nina :)
Autumn Aid: A Mutual Aid Gathering to Support Friends in Gaza
Join Relevations, A7A, and friends for an afternoon of Autumnal Activities, talent sharing, art perusing, and general camaraderie!
Like many others in Gaza, we have three friends and their families who are in dire need of basic supplies like food, water, and camping equipment in order to survive the next few months. Anything you can give is impactful! Aid raised at this event will be split equally among these friends. This event is totally donation-based; like all Temperance Alley Garden events, you do not need a ticket or any funds to join this event.
Community Talent Showcase: 3:30-6:00 Do you know how to play an instrument, do a magic trick, recite all of the world's capitals? Then this is the perfect opportunity for you to showcase that skill in front of the non-judgemental, smiling faces of your community. You can sign up for a performance slot here: https://forms.gle/QefAwocsvHzLj2Vp8
Donation-based art fair: this event will feature 8 local vendors representing a variety of crafts from original paintings, crochet items, jewelry, and more! Free apple cider - Bring a thermos!
End of the day jam session: 6:00- 7:00 bring an instrument and play your heart out.
Parking is somewhat limited. We recommend taking non-car methods of transportation.
Accessibility info: There is no bathroom here. We recommend people use the bathroom at Trader Joe's, which is about a 5 minute walk away. There are no stairs to get to this venue, but the whole thing is grass and gravel ground, which may be difficult to traverse for some. What to bring: A blanket or chair to sit on. A thermos for apple cider. A snack. A good friend. An instrument, because there likely will be a jam session at the end.
Creatives Clubs-giving
A potluck and creative meetup!
Hosted by Cory & Creatives Club DC
Garden Volunteer Hours
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure. And don’t forget to take home your share of the communal harvest.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
Creatives Club & Community Jam
Creatives Club and open songwriting hours are back in the garden this week. Come gather for some productive artistic time together while the garden is blooming around us. Bring a project you're working on, your instrument of choice, or just come socialize with fellow creatives. Some basic art supplies will be provided.
Hosted by Cory & Creatives Club DC
TAG-Along: DC Bike Party 🚲🎉!
Join garden friends as we meet up and roll together to DC Bike Party!
Grab your bike or bikeshare and tag along with us to this monthly social bike ride. We’ll congregate at Temperance Alley Garden during the midweek donation harvest before hitting the streets around 7:45pm. 🚲🎉🚲🎉🚲🎉
hosted by Zachary and Stephen
Donation Harvest for Martha’s Table
Our midweek harvest is donated to Martha’s Table through a long-running partnership with Farm the District. Join us every hump day at 7 to beat the heat and give back to the community.
Breathe Easy: Group Meditation
Our meditation community meets weekly to re-center, connect, and cultivate intentions. With a mix of guided, silent, and relational practice, we ground ourselves in presence and compassion. All levels of experience warmly welcomed.
Hosted by regulars and guests alike, bring a practice for the circle to share.
Yoga in the Garden
All levels flow in the garden for our community donation-suggested classes with the beautiful greenery and open blue sky. Perfect for grounding and centering. Bring yourself, water, and a mat (we’ll have a few extra on hand).
Garden Volunteer Hours
Come get your hands in the soil with our partners at Farm the District, every Saturday throughout the growing season. Whether you’re a first-timer or returning veteran, all are needed to help tend to our shared backyard.
There’s plenty of projects to keep all hands busy, including weeding, watering, composting, repairing, crafting, and ongoing side projects. Find a partner and choose your own adventure. And don’t forget to take home your share of the communal harvest.
As always, we’ll also be giving an orientation tour for newcomers. Welcome neighbors!
🎙️ Open Mic Night at the Garden
Calling all musicians, poets, comedians, and consumers of content! Come gather in the Temperance Alley Garden for an evening of community performances on the open mic lawn.
Performances of original works are especially encouraged! We want to see and support you in sharing your craft or explorations :) all experience levels, identities, and ages welcomed.
hosted by Swataa & Stephen
Creatives Club & Community Jam
Creatives Club and open songwriting hours are back in the garden this week. Come gather for some productive artistic time together while the garden is blooming around us. Bring a project you're working on, your instrument of choice, or just come socialize with fellow creatives. Some basic art supplies will be provided.
Hosted by Cory & Creatives Club DC
Stay in the U
Sign up for the U Street Neighborhood Association’s monthly newsletter, and we’ll keep you posted on upcoming events and neighborhood happenings. You can also subscribe to our Instagram, Twitter, Google Calendar, and iCal.