The sounds of Chuck Brown and others who’ve played D.C.’s official music were blasting in Anacostia on Wednesday as The Go-Go Museum and Café officially opened.
The 8,000-foot museum celebrates the District’s signature sound in style, with interactive exhibits including holograms of artists Anwan Big G Glover and Sugar Bear from EU explaining the genre’s history.
The Go-Go Museum and Café on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue Southeast is the first go-go museum in the world, founder and CEO Ron Moten said.
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- New to go-go, or need a soundtrack for this story? Check out our Spotify playlist with Moten’s four essential go-go songs.
“We know visitors from all over the globe will come to Anacostia to learn about our music,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Walking in the door, visitors are greeted with bold design and a big dose of Washington pride. A wall is painted in the style of a D.C. flag, and the next one is covered with the names of music icons.
A digital timeline lays out the history of not just the music, but how the city has evolved, even hundreds of years before Chuck Brown became known as the grandfather of go-go.
Downstairs, visitors can peruse exhibits that explain Afromodernity and the Don’t Mute D.C. movement.
The space also features a café where head chef Angela Rose – who was a finalist on “Chopped: Spin it to Win It”— shares street foods from diasporas of Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Cuba, plus an outdoor music venue.
Natalie Hopkinson, the museum’s chief curator and a professor at American University, said building the museum took lots of hard work, but the opening feels amazing.
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“Right now, we're in some really difficult times in Washington, D.C., and we need that energy. We need the music, we need the community. We need to be dancing and moving our bodies together and feeling good, feeling good together,” Hopkinson said.
'Tears of joy': Founder says Go-Go Museum is about the past, present and future
D.C. has long been a go-go town and a museum town, so The Go-Go Museum has been a long time coming. Moten said he first shared the idea in 2009 at an awards show.
Go-go was declared D.C.'s official music five years ago this month. Construction on the museum started the next year, and school groups have already been coming through.
The museum is also a place to celebrate history and introduce new generations to go-go. It houses a theater space for live performances and a sound stage to teach youth. There’s a recording studio, too.
Moten says introducing D.C. students and his own 5-year-old son to the museum have been powerful experiences.
“We are a living museum. To watch youth walk in and not want to leave has made the challenge of my life all worth it,” Moten wrote for NBC Washington's culture newsletter, The Weekend Scene.
Moten knew the museum made the right move with interactive exhibits when a group of Anacostia High School students visited.
“They was like, ‘Can we bring our friends back?” he said. “I knew we did it right… it’s hard to get young people’s attention these days.”
“Gave me tears of joy,” he said.
Now, Moten hopes the museum helps the neighborhood flourish.
“This is one of the anchor businesses here to show us that we can basically fix the community up without pushing everybody out. That's the goal over here, to bring great culture, great music. We have great restaurants,” Moten said. “Now we come together and say let's do it right.”
How to visit the Go-Go Museum and Café in D.C.
The Go-Go Museum is open to the general public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Group tours are available on other days. To get in touch, email info@gogomuseumcafe.com.
Admission is free for D.C. residents (but donations are welcome) and $15 for everyone else.
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