* Duke Ellington's granddaughter Mercedes talks about how the Duke was all cribbing on Shakespeare and shit. $12, 7pm at the Folger Shakespeare Library. [FSL]

* DC musician Amy Domingues has is everywhere you look, and tonight she celebrates the release Garland of Hours' new album. $8, 9:00pm at the Black Cat's backstage. [Black Cat]

* Smithsonian Senior Curator for film and media arts John Hanhardt lectures about early experimental film and its uses in installation and performance art. Probably really interesting if not unbelievably boring. Free, 5pm at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's McEvoy Auditorium. [Smithsonian]

* Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher wrote a book that says Clarence Thomas is a miserable human being which we know but still find really really compelling. Free, 7pm at 8518 Fenton Street in Silver Spring [Borders]