D.C.: The Social Power of Music

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  Writer and activist Tony Lewis was one of organizers interviewed for the oral history project.
  Photo by Xueying Chang, Smithsonian
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  The Metro PCS/Central Communications store at the corner of Seventh Street and Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
  Photo by Xueying Chang, Smithsonian
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  Nico Hobson, Rameshwar Bhatt, and Charlie Weber record an interview with Julien Broomfield, a recent Howard University student who was the creator of the hashtag that went viral.
  Photo by Xueying Chang, Smithsonian
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  Nico Hobson of GoGoRadio LIVE was one of the lead interviewers for the #DontMuteDC oral history project.
  Photo by Xueying Chang, Smithsonian
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  Stencil poster activity organized by the DC Public Library Punk and Go-Go Archives
  Photo by Daniel Martínez González
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  Tone P at the #DontMuteDC music video shoot and peace rally, June 1, 2019.
  Photo by Sabrina Lynn Motley, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
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  Ron Moten introduced #DontMuteDC’s “The Royal Pocket Tour,” a performance celebrating go-go music’s signature rhythms. The all-star lineup of musicians shown here includes conga players Samuel “Smoke” Dews, Keith “Sauce” Robinson, Vernell “Wink” Powell, lead talker John “Stinky Dink” Bowman, and djembe player Agyei Edwards.
  Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
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  At the 2019 Folklife Festival’s Preservation Pop-Up, people involved with the spring 2019 #DontMuteDC mobilization talked about their concerns, shared their experiences, and sold CDs of live go-go shows against a stage backdrop showing the corner of Seventh and Florida Avenue NW painted by the Shaw Community Center for a play they produced a year earlier.
  Photo by Michael Barnes, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
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  Donald Campbell, the owner of Central Communications/Metro PCS, brought out some of his inventory of live go-go recordings for the 2019 Folklife Festival’s Preservation Pop-Up.
  Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives
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  Natalie Hopkinson of Howard University and #DontMuteDC introduced an evening concert by the artist Kokayi at the 2019 Folklife Festival.
  Photo by Sonya Pencheva, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

Since 1995, go-go music has emanated from the speakers outside Central Communications/Metro PCS. This telecommunications store owned by Donald Campbell is located in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, one of the fastest gentrifying areas in the country. Although he was in compliance with city noise ordinances, Campbell was forced to turn his music down after a neighbor from a new luxury condo complained to T-Mobile, with whom the store has a sales contract. This precipitated the #DontMuteDC uprising, which morphed into an urgent public conversation about gentrification, culture, and racial inequality, and that continues to be carried forward through diverse efforts and parties.

Between June 2019 and January 2020, fourteen interviews with figures involved in the earliest mobilization of this movement were recorded by a team from Howard University’s Department of Communication, Culture, and Media Studies; the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; and GoGoRadio LIVE.

Audio and video recordings as well as written transcripts of these recordings are being processed and will be publicly accessible through the Center’s Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. A link to this collection is forthcoming.

Narrators

• Wala Blegay, attorney, DC Nurses Association
• Michelle Blackwell, artist; formerly with NE Groovers, What? Band
• Julien Broomfield, English major, class of 2019, Howard University
• Donald Campbell, owner, Central Communications/Metro PCS
• Kymone Freeman, co-founder/producer, We Act Radio
• Anwan “Big G” Glover, artist, Backyard Band
• Natalie Hopkinson, assistant professor, Howard University; author, Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City
• Justin Johnson, aka Yaddiya, artist, producer, Moechella, Long Live Go-Go
• Tony Lewis Jr., community organizer and activist, D.C. Natives Day
• Ronald Moten, community organizer and activist, Check It Enterprises
• Christopher Proctor, aka Lil Chris, artist, TOB Band and Show
• Keith Robinson, aka Sauce, artist, Backyard Band
• Tone P, artist, music producer, Universal Music Publishing
• Sudi West, director, Shaw Community Center