ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC, MU LAMBDA CHAPTER
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How HR Records co-owner Charvis Campbell would spend a perfect day in D.C.
would spend the day with his family at some of his favorite spots around his Petworth-Brightwood neighborhood.
By Stephanie Williams November 29, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST
In D.C. Dream Day, we ask our favorite people in the area to tell us how they would spend a perfect day in the District. I have two boys who wake up real early. The first thing I’m going to do is personal hygiene stuff and then head to Büna Coffeehouse. A happy wife is a happy life. Büna is a coffee shop on Georgia Avenue. It’s Ethiopian, family-owned and we love going there. We’d get coffee for my wife and pastries for the kids.
There’s a lot that we miss by streaming music on our mobile devices: the lack of physical ownership; the excitement that comes from opening a favorite record for the first time. And, according to HR Records co-owner Charvis Campbell , an important piece of history. “As it relates to records specifically, I like to think it’s history for me, Black history,” Campbell says. “An expression of our culture, and in many ways, documenting Black history through music.” HR Records (H.R. is short for “home rule”) is one of only a few dozen Black-owned record stores in the country. A native New Yorker, Campbell is a graduate of Howard University and spent several years working in higher education before opening his Brightwood shop in 2018. Now, he’s educating the world through music, via an expansive selection of jazz, soul and R&B records that fill HR’s Kennedy Street space.When he’s not acquiring records, putting in hours at his shop or running his nonprofit group, Home Rule Music and Film Preservation Foundation, Campbell
Next up after that is a hike in Rock Creek Park. One of the great things is during covid we’ve been kind of rediscovering Rock Creek. We’re going to do a wonderful hike in Rock Creek Park at 16th Street by the tennis courts and head down those trails, which has really been fun. At one point during covid, those streets were blocked off and it was amazing. From there, we’re going to head to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Any chance that we get to go there is culturally refreshing for us. We can’t spend the whole day continued on the next page
MU LAMBDA TORCH 2022
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