Anacostia Joins Cherry Jubilee With Festival, Tree Plantings

As the National Cherry Blossom Festival wound down yesterday, Anacostia celebrated its own cherry blossom festival, with an art walk and jazz music and tours of the community's growing arts scene. Earlier in the week, three cherry trees were planted along the Good Hope Road entrance to Anacostia Park, joining several others planted in the park in recent years.

The Anacostia blossoms cannot compete with the resplendent show that heralds spring every year around the Tidal Basin. But the new cherry trees in Southeast are reminders of blossom-gazing opportunities in other, less-touristy locations.

The trees are symbols of the community's growth, event organizer Korinna Garbis said.

Rain forced yesterday's event inside the Honfleur Gallery, one of the trendy businesses that have opened in Anacostia in recent years. Local leaders and residents munched on muffins as the trees were dedicated to three longtime community leaders: D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8); Albert R. "Butch" Hopkins Jr., president and chief executive of the Anacostia Economic Development Corp.; and Philip Pannell, executive director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council.

The Anacostia festival, in its sixth year, is there to "let people know about other places [where there are cherry blossoms], because it gets so crowded down at the Tidal Basin," said Susan Norton of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.