Once I was a pupil at Howard College, I didn’t totally embrace Washington D.C. as my house away from house. Nonetheless, as an older grownup I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the District’s numerous arts and cultural choices, and now after I go to it seems like a type of homecoming.
My most up-to-date journey was throughout Labor Day weekend’s annual DC JazzFest, the place I noticed nice performances by Cecile McClorin Salvant at Enviornment Stage and Lalah Hathaway at The Anthem, reminisced with a Lyft driver about dancing at The Ritz again within the day, and found a number of new Black-owned companies. And regardless of the tyrannical politics of the day, it was refreshing to see there are nonetheless loads of upwardly cellular Black people thriving and stylishly transferring and shaking in “Chocolate Metropolis.”
Following my lead, listed below are a couple of highlights of the place to take in the tradition and to see and be seen in your subsequent journey to Washington, D.C.
One nation below a groove
Throughout the road from The Go-Go Museum & Cafe (gogomuseumcafe.com) within the historic neighborhood of Anacostia, there’s a charming mural of a younger woman by internationally famend artist El Mac (Miles McGregor) entitled, “Distinctive: The Mild Inside.” Whereas strolling within the neighborhood, I additionally noticed a sticker on a lamppost that learn, “DC Proud: The individuals of DC are joyful, highly effective and we deserve the fitting to control ourselves.”
Anacostia is the place Frederick Douglas — nicknamed “the lion of Anacostia” — bought his closing house Cedar Hill in 1877 and lived his closing years. And the resilient and hopeful spirit Douglas imbued continues to be flourishing.
Based by native activist and music producer Ronald Moten, The Go-Go Museum & Cafe doubles as a neighborhood hub that gives a protected haven for disenfranchised youth.
“It’s like a dwelling museum. It’s not nearly music. It’s about utilizing our superpower in our tradition and our historical past to maneuver us ahead,” says Moten, whose ancestors walked throughout the eleventh road Bridge throughout the Anacostia River in 1862 throughout Freedom’s Crossing, when enslaved individuals fled Maryland.
Inside, the museum pays homage to the homegrown percussive and polyrhythmic hybrid of soul and funk. There’s a big portrait of singer and guitarist Chuck Brown, “the godfather of go-go,” who gained nationwide prominence on the power of his 1979 R&B hit “Bustin’ Unfastened.” Expertise Limitless (E.U.), the group that additional popularized go-go with their platinum single “Da Butt” from the 1988 Faculty Daze soundtrack, additionally has a major presence.
Along with a number of interactive academic displays, the museum hosts stay music performances and has a restaurant with diaspora-inspired road meals.
Anacostia mural by El Mac. (Tracy E. Hopkins picture)
“Most individuals who come right here don’t imagine what we’ve finished, due to the earlier than and after. The [co-curator] of the museum, Professor Natalie Hopkinson, helped me take 16 displays I had in my head and switch it right into a actuality.”
Though there have been overt makes an attempt to suppress and criminalize go-go tradition — together with a 1987 legislation that curbed younger individuals’s entry to go-go venues and a 2019 noise grievance in opposition to a nook retailer taking part in go-go music that sparked the #DontMuteDC motion — in 2020 Mayor Muriel Bowser signed a invoice that formally designated go-go music because the official music of the District of Columbia.
“Go-go is D.C.’s superpower. It’s one of many solely types of music that hasn’t been colonized,” explains Moten.
“Hip-hop was an incredible factor and nonetheless is. However due to its colonization, younger individuals popping out aren’t incentivized to make [positive] music like Widespread. [Instead], they use it to tear our neighborhood down by speaking about medication and killing. With go-go, you aren’t going to play wherever with that form of music. That’s solely as a result of we’ve some type of management over it.”
The museum is free for DC Residents ($10 steered donation) and $15 for non-DC residents.
The place to remain
Near Union Station within the vibrant NoMa nabe (quick for north of Massachusetts Avenue), The Morrow (themorrowhotel.com/) is a glossy Curio Assortment by Hilton resort with 203 cozy visitor rooms and an inviting dwelling room-style foyer. Though I didn’t get an opportunity to take part throughout my two-night keep, The Morrow hosts religious pilates courses on Saturday mornings and “Entice & RnB” yoga courses on Sunday mornings (payment primarily based and registration required).
What I did expertise, nonetheless, was prime notch completely happy hour with a panoramic view at Sly Rooftop, considered one of two meals ideas at the moment provided on the resort by celebrated chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson. The right setting for a ladies’ night time out or date night time, I savored shrimp cocktail, truffle fries and blue cornbread paired with an ample pour of glowing wine. Marcus DC is the resort’s different coveted culinary scorching spot that blends trendy American cooking with Black culinary traditions. My statement, from the surface wanting in, is that it attracts a good-looking crowd nightly.
Extra close by nosh choices embrace a Dealer Joe’s for wine and snacks and chef-driven ideas within the foodie haven Union Market District (unionmarketdc.com/eat-drink/).
On the waterfront
Overlooking the southwest waterfront Wharf, Chef Jeffery Williams helms the kitchen at Willowsong (willowsongdc.com) on the Intercontinental Washington DC. In a main area that previously housed Chef Kwame Onuwachi’s shuttered Kith/Kin (his present restaurant is Dōgon on the Salamander DC), Williams provides a seasonal American menu that makes use of domestically sourced merchandise. The service is superb, the meals is contemporary and properly seasoned, and dinner appetizers like crispy prawn and calamari, Brussel sprouts, and a child gem Caesar salad are hearty.
After dinner, catch a rising star on the Wharf’s Enviornment Stage (arenastage.org), a pioneer of the regional theater motion that showcases numerous and revolutionary works from across the nation and nurtures new performs like Fremont Ave. (October 8 by way of November 23, 2025) written by Reggie D. White and directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Extra must-see sights
Now greater than ever, it’s very important to go to and assist D.C.’s free Smithsonian museums, together with the at all times illuminating Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition and the grassroots Anacostia Group Museum.
Plus, take a look at “Pictures and the Black Arts Motion, 1955–1985” on the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork (September 21 by way of January 11, 2026). The primary-of-its-kind exhibit explores the work of American and Afro-Atlantic diaspora photographers, together with Gordon Parks, Lorna Simpson, Jamel Shabazz and Carrie Mae Weems, in creating and fostering a distinctly Black visible tradition and id.
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