Our Picks

Can't Miss

1. AUGUST WILSON'S 20TH CENTURY

[ON STAGE] The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's crowning glory is presented at the Kennedy Center in five weeks of staged readings. Wilson's 10-part cycle of plays chronicles the African American experience by decade (all but one set in his home town of Pittsburgh). More than 30 stage and screen actors will join artistic director Kenny Leon and six directors to perform the works, which will be presented in chronological order. This week: "Gem of the Ocean" (set in the 1900s) and "Jim Turner's Come and Gone" (1910s).

Opens Tuesday. Through April 6. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, 2700 F St. NW. $65. 202-467-4600 or 800-444-1324.

2. LET'S GET LOST

[MOVIE] Photographer Bruce Weber's 1988 documentary about Chet Baker combines excerpts from Italian B movies, rare performance footage and interviews with the jazz legend and his peers, friends, children and battling ex-wives. Mostly captured during the last year of Baker's life, the black-and-white film garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

Opens Friday. Through March 13. Landmark's E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. $7-$9.75. 202-452-7672.

3. TRACY CHEVALIER

[LITERATURE] If 1999's "Girl With a Pearl Earring" whetted your appetite for historical fiction, prepare yourself for another helping. The best-selling author (and D.C. native) comes to town to read, discuss and sign her latest, "Burning Bright," a creative account of two young siblings who befriend the radical poet and painter William Blake in 18th-century London.

Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 4801 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda. Free. 301-986-1851.

4. CADENCE WEAPON

[CONCERT] The Canadian MC's highly anticipated sophomore album, "Afterparty Babies," comes out Tuesday, which doesn't give you much time to catch up on the new tunes before his show at DC9. But even if you aren't familiar with Rollie Pemberton's new work, do yourself the favor of checking out the young hip-hop Renaissance man's clever, witty, danceable electro-rap. With Born Ruffians and US Royalty.

Thursday, doors at 8:30 p.m. DC9, 1940 Ninth St. NW. $10. 202-483-5000.