2023: ‘The yr of Go-Go.’ DC leaders convene music summit

WASHINGTON — Among the most vital cultural and historic conferences in D.C. which have launched vital concepts have been convened on the iconic Ben’s Chili Bowl location on U Road in Northwest D.C.

Becoming, it could appear, Ben’s was the placement for the District’s first Go-Go music summit, convening metropolis leaders from a wide range of businesses together with musicians, producers and different stakeholders with roots within the Go-Go music scene. 

Born out of the ‘Don’t Mute DC’ motion was a invoice signed into regulation by District Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2020 that proclaimed Go-Go because the official music of D.C. 

However what did that imply and the way would metropolis leaders implement that?

Thursday, the primary beat dropped on figuring that out. 

Organized by the Mayor’s Workplace of Nightlife & Tradition, greater than 50 folks crowded right into a again room at Ben’s to begin tossing round concepts on how the town might assist Go-Go.  

“It’s the quintessential essence of what Washington, D.C. is about,” stated Jimmy Watkins from Humanities D.C. “It is rebellious, it is authentic. It has custom.”  

Musicians, one after one other, spoke to the gang and particularly to metropolis leaders, imploring them to discover a manner for artists to extra simply entry assets to carry out at metropolis venues and to market their efforts. 

“We’d like assist. Folks need assistance. They should know the place the assets are,” stated Watkins.

This may look like the primary in a collection of conferences metropolis leaders plan to host as they appear to piece collectively a authorities technique constructed round Go-Go.

“I am loving it. I am loving that the town is open to have this dialogue. It has been a very long time coming,” stated native professor and Go-Go musician ‘Bootsy Vegas.’ “We have been ready for the day the place we felt like the federal government backed it with not solely funding but in addition public coverage.” 

“Go-Go is alive and it is rising,” stated native music legend ‘Shorty Corleone’. “It is the subsequent factor that is going to alter music.” 

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