The events and projects on our radar at the top of this month, from A (GOOD) AMERICAN to the Local First Awards. Dive in, and (book)mark your calendars.

Updates and happenings from the field, AKA this city: this episode of Direct Message focuses on retail – from recent brick & mortar openings and closures, to pop-up and holiday markets to have on your radar.

Marcella Kriebel is a DC artist, illustrator, and author - and now, founder of Brookland Exchange, a pop-up market coming to the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market on September 20.

A September spotlight on a few of the people and projects (and city-wide scavenger hunts) on the #aCreativeDC radar this month – from upcoming design library & shop Resource to Simone Jacobson, "the cultural connector DC needs right now."

Our tried and true avenues for taking it all in, it being cultural 411 about this city.

Inspired by sacred geometry, Jordann Wine draws on classic forms and color gradients to invite reflection on the infinite. Working from DC Arts Studios, she's also a member of Willow Street Art Gallery, where she's currently showing work as part of the "We Met on Instagram" group show.

Photo credit: Jared Soares

Meet the women running the Femme Fatale DC Pop Up: the District's womyn-only collective of local womyn creatives & entrepreneurs, with the goal of fostering and sustaining our local community of womyn who support one another's creative & business endeavors. The Femme Fatale DC Pop-UP Shop is located at 4620 Wisconsin Ave NW, and features 70+ vendors from DC and beyond.

Sun Shine is a magical pop-up marketplace entirely by black women artists, makers, and vendors, because "every new season is another chance to celebrate our community’s incredible power to always renew itself." Taking place this weekend on the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market, this episode of DIRECT MESSAGE with A Creative DC dives into it with the event's co-founders, Whitney Teal (the maker behund Red Dirt Natural) and Nicole Crowder (of Nicole Crowder Upholstery).

Carl Maynard is founder of Walk With Locals, a community photo walk with a tag line of "know your city. know your neighbors." With attendance in the hundreds. Walk With Locals has a mission of supporting and exploring place through creative community, local businesses, and new media. This episode of DIRECT MESSAGE covers how Walk With Locals came together, and gives details on the upcoming Adams Morgan Walk (culminating at the LINE DC!) on 6/23.

This episode of Direct Message focuses on the tried, the true, and the truths behind how to get press mentions and other forms of public acknowledgment for your projects. Listen in for real world advice (and the podcast, advice-driven iteration of A Creative DC's online FIELD GUIDEs) from ACDC founder Morgan H. West.