The Anacostia Waterfront Corp. is opening up Kingman and Heritage islands to the public Saturday with a grand opening event that will feature native animal education, island exploration and a raptor show.

Kingman Island eventually will be the site of an environmental education center, which will meet the highest rating of the U.S. Green Building Council, according to the AWC. Kingman Island and the adjacent Heritage Island are man-made, built in the 1920s with material taken from the Anacostia River. Officials now hope to make them recreational parks that teach visitors about the river.

“Kingman and Heritage Islands will be a premier destination where visitors and residents alike can learn about the vital link between the environmental restoration of the Anacostia River and the revitalization of its bordering communities,” said Neil Albert, AWC interim president and chief executive officer, in a press release.

To get to the event, residents can either park in Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Parking Lot 6 or walk from the Stadium Armory Metro station along 21st Street to the parking lot. Free shuttle service from the Metro station to the island will be provided at 9:25, 9:35 and 9:45 a.m. The event will last from 9:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.

Dine Around Barracks Row on Saturday

The 3rd annual “Barracks Row Dine Around” will be held Saturday on Eighth Street Southeast. From 1 to 5 p.m., ticketholders can sample an appetizer, small entree, dessert or drink from up to 16 participating establishments.

Stretching down Eighth Street from D Street, just south of the Eastern Market Metro stop, to L Street, just south of Interstate 295, the restaurants include Banana Café, Las Placitas, Starfish Café, Finn mac Cool’s and The Ugly Mug.

Patrons will receive a stamp from each restaurant they visit, and anyone who hits all 16 will be awarded a future discount at any participating restaurant.

Tickets are $40 and can be purchased on Saturday at any participating business or in advance from Pawticulars, Chat’s Liquors, Capitol Hill Sporting Goods and Apparel, Hoopla Traders and the Barracks Row Main Street office.

For more information, call Barracks Row Main Street at 544-3188 or e-mail mainstreet@barracksrow.org.

Capitol Society Series Examines Slavery in D.C.

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society on Friday will convene with the fourth installment of its nine-year series “The National Capital in a Nation Divided: Congress and the District of Columbia Confront Sectionalism and Slavery.”

The event, held in Room 902 of the Hart Senate Office Building, will focus on slavery connected to the District of Columbia and Congress during the early 18th century.

According to Lauren Borchard, associate historian for the Capitol Historical Society, past conference topics have included Congress in the age of Jackson, as well as slavery and Congress in the 1840s and 1850s. The program will wrap up on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 2012.

Borchard said Friday’s events, which run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., are helping to complete the mission of the nearly decade-long symposium and that the program is “part of this larger project of making sure that people are aware that there’s a whole history to Congress and different things that we can keep learning about it, even though history [is] always being written.”

Friday’s event is free of charge and features James Stewart, a James Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College, as the keynote speaker. Other speakers featured throughout the day include a number of authors and scholars, such as A. Glenn Crothers of the University of Louisville and Filson Historical Society; Stanley Harold of the department of social sciences at South Carolina State University; John Michael Vlach from the American Studies Department at The George Washington University; and Mary Kary Ricks, author and historian. To pre-register or RSVP for a provided lunch, e-mail your name and contact information to uschs@uschs.org.

— Emily Yehle, Daniel Heim and Andrea Kemp