Throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic – when isolation from each other was key – Derrick “D-Good” Jones, supplied a reminder in regards to the magical, unifying energy of music (and social media) by Membership Quarantine (CQ).
Three years later, and with buddies and households capable of jam and have a good time life in individual once more, D-Good is working to do greater than carry individuals collectively.
“Membership Quarantine Reside Residency,” on the Kennedy Heart from Oct. 6-8, is a weekend of leisure slated to fill hearts, minds and souls with inspiration.
“I attempt to feed individuals’s souls,” D-Good informed The Informer.
“I can do tons of exhibits all over the place that don’t have anything to do with CQ, and I’m OK with that,” D-Good defined, “however the second that I name one thing CQ – a Membership Quarantine – I’ve to be able to present … to feed the souls of individuals.”
With programming that features a comedy showcase, star-studded musical performances, and a day for reward and worship, a weekend of Membership Quarantine Reside guarantees whole-soul meals.
“We feed them with laughter. We feed them with music. We attempt to maintain individuals’s psychological well being proper,” D-Good defined.
D-Good, 53, will not be new to curating eclectic productions, nor to the Kennedy Heart, for that matter, having introduced acts to the nationwide performing arts venue over time. Additional, in 2022, D-Good was the primary hip-hop artist to headline and promote out the Kennedy Heart Opera Home with Membership Quarantine Reside.
This yr’s three-day residency, nonetheless, is a realization of D-Good’s goals, arduous work and prayers.
“This yr feels extra like precisely what I’ve at all times envisioned when it got here to Membership Quarantine,” he mentioned. “After I obtained the decision that mentioned, ‘Hey, we wish to give you the whole weekend,’ I used to be, like, ‘Wow, that is what I’ve at all times dreamed of,’ you realize, to have the ability to have an evening of comedy, an evening of music, R&B music and hip-hop, and a daytime get together of reward and worship – like the way in which I used to do on Sundays.”
Friday’s Comedy Showcase contains Chris Spencer, Michael Che and Sherri Shepherd. Saturday will characteristic MC Lyte, Kem and Muni Lengthy. Sunday, Bishop Hezekiah Walker, Anthony Brown and group therAPy will wrap the weekend off with reward and worship.
D-Good’s Life Exhibits Hip-Hop Journey, Gives Inspiration, Spreads Pleasure
D-Good, a spiritually-driven rapper and DJ, has at all times hoped to unfold love and pleasure. He’s humbled to see how far music has taken him — from scrambling for survival to promoting out the Kennedy Heart.
“I keep in mind when, once I was youthful and didn’t have these alternatives and wasn’t capable of go to a present, or wasn’t capable of journey the world or, you realize, didn’t have a home, or sleeping in my cousin’s front room. I keep in mind being that individual and simply having these goals of this,” he informed The Informer.
As a world-renowned star, D-Good will not be solely grateful for a spot to name house, however keen about bringing pleasure to others.
“I keep in mind praying, ‘If I ever had an opportunity to do that, I might try this for individuals,’ and, like, right here it’s,” he mentioned. “I had a platform that folks needed to come back to as a result of they needed to really feel good. Man that’s divine, that’s God-given. And I’m not going to make use of that to do any mistaken. I’m at all times going to do my greatest to be sure that I present happiness for individuals.”
Because the world celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop, D-Good mentioned he’s wanting ahead to presenting the style on an iconic stage just like the Kennedy Heart. Furthermore, he hopes that the whole weekend shall be a time of celebration and a supply of inspiration for all attendees.
“I’m a 53-year-old man who has been on this hip-hop enterprise, and the music trade since I used to be 15 years outdated,” he mentioned. “[I] just about began on the backside of hip-hop – like we had been signed to a file firm that actually didn’t promote data like that. They had been promoting pillows. … I wasn’t the best rapper in that group. Like I used to be the sidekick. And right here we’re many years later, I’m nonetheless right here. I’m on larger levels. I’m my very own individual. I stand alone. I share this love with individuals.”
D-Good’s mission is for all individuals – artists and attendees alike – to really feel particular and beloved after Membership Quarantine.
“I hope the artists really feel the identical manner, that they had been handled with love, and that they really feel the love from the gang, and from the individuals, and from one another,” he mentioned. “I simply need individuals strolling away from this sense so impressed and simply feeling like all of us poured into one another.”
For tickets and extra data, go to kennedy-center.org.
