The Pack Express 2022

The Pack

A PUBLICATION OF The Pack www.thepack.world

@thepack.world

Summer 2022

Kavon Martez

is using the game of 33 to tell DC’s story and build the next basketball powerhouse 4

Nia Keturah

Calhoun is navigating the world of art in DC while maintaining her integrity 9

Keyonna Jones

is working every day to ensure the Southside of DC has a community space within the arts 12

Yaddiya

is celebrating 3 years of the GoGo movement Moechella, and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon 16

Ty Hobson-Powell

WHAT HAPPENED TO

CHOCOLATE CITY ?

The color of gentrification P. 20

talks DC statehood, and the outlook of progress within the city’s ongoing issues 22

The Pack World is a content and experience company, dedicated to telling the stories of Washington, D.C. (past/present/future) in culturally honest and impactful ways.

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eyeopeners

NOT QUITE CHOCOLATE? Every ethnic group in DC, outside of Black people, experienced an increase in their population from 2010 to 2020.

Overall, black people experienced a net loss of 10,000 residents. It leaves black residents in a gray area, “is this still Chocolate City?” The answer is kind of. Despite the black population decreasing by the year, the impact of black culture in the art, music, and event spaces are ever-evolving. How does the city continue to sell black culture, while pushing the black residents out?

express The Pack

WARD 7 IS LESS OF A DESERT

KICKED IN THE HEART

NEW UNION STATION?

The site of the Capitol Gateway Marketplace will be used to build a new Giant Grocery store in Ward 7.

FIFA officials have officially ruled out DC and Baltimore as potential host cities for the 2026 World Cup.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser will use eminent domain to start the process. With about 81,000 residents living in Ward 7, there are currently only two full-service grocery stores that are available to residents. This inequity speaks to the larger issue of neglect that Wards 7 and 8 have historically faced within the city.

The same can be said about medical care, as there is one hospital east of the Anacostia

The news has devastated soccer fans of the area, as Washington, DC boasted one of the highest viewership rates in the country for team USA Soccer as well as the Premiere League in 2022. DC has also been looked over as a host city for major sporting events. The Olympics, the NBA All Star Game, the Super Bowl have all dodged the Nation’s Capital for the past 20 years. Is there time for investment in new sporting infrastructure ?

The Federal Railroad Adminstration unveiled more details of a plan to turn Union Station into a transportation hub.

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTOGRAPHY @DorseyPhotos @caygfoto @nayion202

EDITOR/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

ORIGINAL ARTWORK

Nayion Perkins COVER PHOTO

Elijah Boardley

@the.k.in.cmyk

WRITERS

@Nayion202

WHERE TO FIND US TWITTER: @ThePack_World INSTAGRAM: @ThePack.World WEBSITE: www.ThePack.World

@DistrictofKluse PHOTOGRAPHY

@DorseyPhotos

@sdotpdotmedia

@the.k.in.cmyk

@A78759

@IWontWin4Real

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter or visit our site to purchase packwear and see more curated content!

The multibillion-dollar redevelopment will completely overhaul the design of the station, and will look to add wide rail platforms, new bus terminals, and a plethora of restaurants and shops that will have easy access to DC’s public transportation essentials such as Metrorail, buses, taxis, ride-shares, streetcars and parking

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 3

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Grand Theft Auto: D.C. Drive How auto theft and carjacking has found an unexpected home in Washington, D.C.

Police Department will respond.

Black bodies in Washington, D.C. are already extremely overpoliced and children are in no way shielded from this. In fact, in a city where independence is afforded (and many times expected due to overworked parents, economic hardship, holes in enticing programs for youth, etc.) to youth, this experience can come at the early and tender age of 9 and 10 years old - you quickly learn how to “yes sir”, “no sir” your way out of a potentially penultimate experience with law enforcement. The majority of these crimes appear to take place in areas going through the throes of gentrification - like Northeast and parts of Southeast.

Responses from new residents (gentrifiers) fly to the top of MPD’s concern list and their brand of policing typically looks like increased patrolling, harassment, and other tactics that were responsible to the nationwide wildfire of protests that marked the Summer of 2020. What impact will this have on the relationship between the city’s police department and it’s black native community? One can only surmise, but from what we have both seen and experienced so far, hope for progress feels extremely fleeting.

BY NORBERT KLUSMANN “It didn’t matter what it was - it could’ve been a Lexus, a Camry, a Ford. It didn’t matter. It was all good.”

The 1995 crime drama film New Jersey Drive painted a very interesting rites of passage in Newark, New Jersey, which was then known as “the car theft capital of the world”. D.C., itself, is no stranger to less than savory monikers earned during the 1990s, but the world of car theft was never a defining variable. D.C. is known nationally for it’s public transportation system - Natives learn to ride Metrorail and bus early and rely on it as their first gateway to the four corners of the city. However, in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the youth of Washington, D.C. turn to auto theft and carjacking as a coming-of-age foray into crime.

Nowadays, throughout D.C., it isn’t a strange sight to see cars in steadily gentrifying areas propped up on stackable drink delivery crates - the 2022 version of bricks - rims and wheels nowhere to be found. One woman had all four wheels and tires stolen off of her vehicle, three times in a whopping six months. Car crimes as a whole have risen significantly, without a doubt due to the financial strain many have begun facing during a COVID-19 pandemic, mired by a rise in inflation and other systemic failures. But the rise in youth-specific auto theft and carjacking feels like another beast altogether. First and foremost, this is concerning

“In DC we don’t say goodbye, we say be safe.”

because car crimes, especially committed by youth, are considered an entry way into a life of crime, a reality this city’s natives know all too well. In an article entitled “Car Theft: The Offender's Perspective”, published in HOME OFFICE RESEARCH STUDIES, found that most “became involved in car crime in their early to mid-teens, when over two-thirds were still officially at school. Most had extensive careers in terms of both length of

involvement and number of offenses committed , offending at least two to three nights a week at their peak.” This is a frightening prospect, especially in a city with rising cost in living and rapidly decreasing levels of opportunity for its black and brown children.

A second reason for concern doesn’t stem from the youth involving themselves in these crimes, but the way in which the Metropolitan

In conclusion, the same issues that plague the city and it’s mishandling of the root of crime figure to play the same hand here. The social root of crime is: “inequality, not sharing power, lack of support to families and neighborhoods, real or perceived inaccessibility to services, lack of leadership in communities, low value placed on children and individual well-being, (and) the overexposure to television as a means of recreation.” These themes continue to rear their heads in the judgments of those in power in Washington, D.C. and the people affected most are the people who have lived here longest, and continue to be disenfranchised the most: the natives of Washington, D.C.

Streets Is F*cked Up: The Steady and Deadly Rise in D.C. Homicide Rate

Homicides by the Year

2018: 160 2019: 166 2020: 198

2021: 221

2022’s numbers are no different, as the 14% rise in homicides from 2020 to 2021, continues: At the same point and time as last year, D.C. currently has 92 homicides, up from 81.

And all of this is before the heat of Summer sets in. All statistics were provided by the Metropolitan Police Dept.

Scandal In D.C. Forensic Lab Contributes to Unsafe Streets?

D.C.’s crime lab is likely out of commission until 2023 - a whopping 2 years after it’s accreditation was suspended in Spring, 2021. Why did they lose their accreditation? According to a report by WTOP, the penalty came “following allegations that its managers pressured employees to alter their analyses of evidence to cover up an error that wrongly linked two 2015 shootings to a single firearm.” In a climate of steadily increasing violence, it is very concerning that D.C.’s forensics arm isn’t cleared to do simple things like fingerprint and DNA analysis - but, it also stands as a proof point for the rampant corruption frequently found in the law enforcement ranks of the Nation’s Capital.

4 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

sports

How would you describe DC’s love for basketball?

DC,’s love for basketball is amazing.I definitely feel like we’re a basketball city. But the one thing is, the fandom of the bigger teams, it’s starting to fade a little. People are very into high school basketball, youth basketball, which is okay. They got their fan base of guys that just love everything DC. Georgetown has faded tremendously in the public’s eye of DC, but overall just playing a game, a lot of DC dudes play every weekend or every day. It’s a big on trash talking, you know, you got [instagram] lives going on. I’m not sure if you watched the Quinn Cook [instagram] lives during the pandemic? It was some of the craziest debates and history of basketball in Washington DC. So it’s definitely a basketball city.

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THE GA ME OF 33

Georgetown back in the 80’s through the 90’s, from the Ewing’s to AI’s [Allen Iverson] was a huge thing. Your basketball team uses imagery, paying homage to that. Talk to me about how important revisiting that history was to you.

NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR

Kavon Martez is Cultivating a Community Through the Game of Basketball.

Basketball has a close relationship with the inner cities across the world. Sports such as tennis, golf, hockey, gymnastics, and so on, are not accessible for many black kids to participate in at an early age. A lot of this can be traced to a lack of access to resources within communities. With basketball, the game is simple.

There’s not much equipment that needs to be purchased; all you need is some sneakers, a ball, and a hoop.

In DC culture, basketball’s unique relationship with the city cannot be ignored.

To understand it you must look past the mainstream of the NBA, where the Washington Wizards, formerly known as the Bullets, have struggled to maintain success since their last championship in 1978.

Basketball is one of the true subcultures of DC. The Goodman League in SE DC, is a great example of that. NBA pros, amateurs and fanatics alike gather to participate or watch games throughout the summer.

While those groups definitely hold impact, the biggest example of DC’s relationship to basketball is on full display with the game of 33. The goal of the game is to be the first to score 33 points, and there is no cap on the amount of people who can participate. What makes this unique to DC is the fact that many across the country play this same game, but they only play it to 21.

33 is a game that has been played on DC basketball courts for decades. No one knows the true origin of the game, but many trace it back to Patrick Ewings tenure at Georgetown University, and how Jon Thompson’s historic teams put

DC basketball on the map in the 1980’s.

Ewing famously sported the number 33 as a Georgetwon Hoya, and later on in his hall of fame NBA career with the New York Knicks.

Kavon Martez explored this very relationship between basketball and Washington DC, with the debut of his documentary ‘33|DC’s Game’ alongside co directors Llyod Foster and David Ross. The short film explores the rules of the game, its possible origins, its ties to Georgetown, and DC’s love for basketball.

For Kavon, the release of the documentary was a turning point within his life.

Kavon is a native Washingtonian who previously dabbled with storytelling through making streetwear clothes. One day he decided to make a hoodie dedicated to the game of 33, and got a response that would propel his outlook on things moving forward.

“So I used to make clothes a lot…that was like my first creative outlet. So the way it started was one of the most organic things in my life…I made like this dope hoodie explaining the rules of 33 and what it meant and then I put it up on my social media, just joking around and I never got a reception like that [before].I never had an organic response like that. I had no expectation that people would like the sweater. l was just like, this is cool, this is just DC, just a game we played. So I put it on my social media and I had like 150 comments of people like, “bro, I need this, this fire”.

He soon connected with a friend of his, Lloyd Foster,a photographer attending NYU who introduced him to fellow film-

maker David Ross. Impressed with Ross’s previous work, a vision soon came to Kavon about what to do next.

“I was just like, people really loving this idea of 33. You think we can make a documentary about 33? And I never went into a magical brainstorm like that before. That one night that I thought about it, I visioned everything that was going to come. And then we created the film and now I have a basketball organization named 33 Hoyas with over 80 kids.”

33 Hoyas is a youth basketball team founded by Kavon in 2020. In the aftermath of the 33 documentary, Kavon developed 33 Community DC, feeling a responsibility to continue what he started.

I visited Kavon at Shepard Park Recreation Center in May to talk about this journey, and the outlook of the organization. From the very moment I met him, you could feel his focus and attention to detail in everything he said. You could also feel how much the culture of DC shaped him.

In our conversation, Kavon discussed the pathway from the documentary release to developing a successful youth basketball program; connecting and receiving a donation from Chicago designer JoeFreshGoods; what he works to instill in the kids he mentors, and much more.

Here is an excerpt from our conversation: How would you describe yourself?

Oh man, I got so many layers in myself, but I’m definitely a founder of a basketball organization. I’m a Washingtonian my whole life. I’m definitely a philanthropist, but I don’t really like you know, it’s like that word is all action instead of just the title. I think I do pretty good work in the community and I’m a basketball fanatic, to be honest.

It’s important. I come from a Hoya family.

I love Patrick Ewing, what he’s done for our city. He made us a legit basketball city as far as the college landscape. Me being a young African American coach, John Thompson has played a major role in the development of young black kids, coaches, everything! He affected so many.

So it was kind of a no brainer. My team name was 33 community and I didn’t have an official mascot [yet]. And I was just like, it feels right to be a Hoya. It feels right to play with those colorways. It feels right to have uniforms inspired by that and travel. I got a new uniform called the John Thompson set. We paying homage to John Thompson so it just makes sense. And it’s teaching the next generation about where they come from because they have no clue what Georgetown is. Kids on my team!? They don’t. They just like, “oh, this look fire,” but whole time they dont know.

So talk to me a little bit about 33 Community DC. How did that come about in the aftermath of the documentary?

Man, you know what went into the founding of 33 Community? The importance of using the momentum of the documentary.

So when I made 33 the documentary, the film. I don’t think in that time, it was anything bigger in DC, as far as impact.

We as the team, we’ve put together something that will last a lifetime and it was just a moment. I can tell people were just sitting back ike, I want to see this. I want to see where he’s going to go with this. I had three screenings in one day and I had a screening going on in New York at the same time to play off the Patrick Ewing aspect. So for us to do that, and then how the people showed up, like people brought their kids out, people sat back and watched the film, I cried at the screening.

It was just like, I couldn’t believe the love and how people received the film.

And in that moment I felt it was my responsibility to make this a lifetime thing instead of a moment thing. And there was

COMMUNITY GOODS Designer JoeFreshGoods is generally known for his long history of streetwear clothing releases, referencing fixtures of black culture within his designs. Recently he has entered the shoe world with New Balance, releasing multiple silhoettes with vibrant colors.

On August 21st, 2021, during the release of his Outside Clothes 990 shoe, he issued a surprise release of his exlcusive shoe at DC boutique SOMEWHERE, understanding the city’s impact on the popularity of New Balance, and what they mean to DC culture.

FreshGoods donated all the sales from that day to 33ComunityDC, the organziation Kavon Martez launched, forging a connection that was full circle for the DC native, but also provided his organization with a much needed boost to move forward and serve DC.

Quotes of the Film Below are some of our favorite quotes from the short film 33|DC’s Game “In other parts of the country they played 21, in DC we play 33” “Sometimes you might have to take on four or five poeple, its pretty much a whole game all into one, its compact”

“Gotta have signature moves, you have to use your left, you have to use your right, you have to use the hesi” “If you show up and you not that good, Imma let you play and Imma just cook you”

“It just kept us out of trouble and got us better everyday.”

Follow and support 33 Community:

@33CommunityDC

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 5 so many kids I was coaching before that, but I didn’t have my own organization.

So people kept asking me, “Hey, what are you planning to do after?” And I fell in love with the responsibility to provide for DC. And the way I was gonna provide my service was through community, was [through] basketball. So the night of my screening was the first day that I knew I was going to start a basketball organization on my own. That was the moment, the screening solidified everything.

it in this new world as far as youth sports and sports past that. You will not get a D-1 scholarship if you’re not in tip top shape. If you don’t have an engine where you can run miles and you’re preparing your body for that moment, that will fail. So my job is to bring the knowledge to DC. Right now we have about 40 kids playing elite basketball and in the whole program we have about 90 kids. My plan in the next couple years is to quadruple that number and have 150 elite kids and 500 kids for recreation. And if we’re giving these parents the knowledge to put your kid on this type of diet, your kid needs to wake up on Sundays and run Hills with us. He needs to start lifting weights at 13 years old. He needs to get in shape, he needs to fix his core. We can only provide that information and stress that we follow it. So we got a tall task man.

Knowing the history of this city, what does it mean to you to be a coach and to be able to engage with the future generation of Washingtonians?

It’s great but I also feel sorry for the new generation because they missed out on everything that made us who we are. So the new era of kids in Washington DC is not the old kids of Washington, DC. They’re much more...I believe that they’re better skillfully than us in basketball, but as far as street smarts and stuff like that, they don’t have a clue.

You got young stars that’s like 12 years old that has 30,000 followers, so he’s not trying to here nothing, you know what I mean? Like it’s a new kid. We were definitely coached harder. I done got cussed out. I done got yoked up before. I done got smacked upside the head by coaches.

We were much tougher kids so with this new generation of kids, I’m learning them.

But I’m also kind of just very hesitant on the stuff that I would do and show them because we’re not the same. It’s a whole new day and age and they don’t really have the grit that we had. But you know, that’ what God had planned for us. It’s a whole new city, it’s just not the same I can tell you that.

How important do you think sports is to community building and community engagement and kids feeling connected to their area and their peers?

So sports building is major. This is the deep part of the interview. Washington DC inner city kids are last in division one scholarships. We are last. We don’t have the same nutrition as suburban kids or caucasian kids or asian kids that’s more well off. We don’t have the resources for training. We don’t have the double income households where you can pay for the training. So a program like 33, it’s targeted for inner city youth athletes.The elite and beginners. The elite kids that we have, I have to build them a profile. I have to market this kid the same way a kid from Virginia who lives in a five, six, $700,000 mansion you know, his family makes 300k or better a year, I have to market my kid the same way that that kid is marketed. So if you can imagine, sports is huge because these kids’ parents, some of them are struggling to make ends meet. So their kid getting a free education is everything that they’re banking on. That would be such a blessing for the inner city kid and the inner city parent to get a scholarship and to go on to play division one basketball, division two basketball, HBCU basketball.

You know, God willing, somebody makes the league out of this organization and they are able to come back and build this up so now we got all these coaches, we got a system, we got nutrition facts for parents. They’re playing across the world. That’s my vision. That’s the biggest thing. If you are going to write anything down, write down the discrepancy of the inner city DC kid compared to suburban Maryland, suburban DC, and suburban Virginia. It’s a totally different game and I hope I can soften that journey. There’s other guys in the city, good guys that’s,

I can tell a lot just from this conversation, you have a mindset of, ‘we’re going to get this done’. Like I’m going to plug away at it. Have you seen that rub off on the kids?

33 Hoyas basketball squad poses in front of airbrushed Patrick Ewing artwork. welcome to come join me and us to build a powerhouse that serves our community.

What’s been the most rewarding part of having this role within the community coaching? Have you just had moments where it’s like okay, this has been worth it so far?

Yeah, man. I met my idol, JoeFreshGoods.

He donated a lot of money to 33 Community. He gave us our start...

And that was from the New Balance release he did in DC for the Outside Clothes Collection?

Yeah. So, he gave us our start. For me to be like a fan of his and just, I was super into street wear, maybe like in 2014, 2015.

So when he started out, that’s when I was young, like the only dude in DC maybe, buying his clothes, getting everybody hip.

One day I was driving down the street and a Chicago number popped up and I was like, man, who the hell is this? And I was like, hello? He like, yeah, this Joe man, this JoeFreshGoods, man, what’s going on? I was like, whoa, like I had almost crashed.

Not to be like I’m geeked up, but I was just like this a full circle moment and you don’t even know I’ve been fucking with you for a long time. I got old emails when I’m asking to be his intern and stuff like that. So for us to become friends and for him to be helping me with one day possibly joining new balance basketball in the future, my organization being sponsored and stuff like that, that’s a full circle moment.

But the day to day stuff I’ve been featured on the news, I had newspaper write-ups and stuff like that. To be in a Starbucks and an older lady be like, “Hey baby, I seen you on the news yesterday”.

And then I may be in like the mall or something getting some shoes or I might be out getting some food and a kid might see me and follow me on social media as far as the 33 page and be like, oh you the 33 dude. Oh, I want to play with y’all. Can you, can you call my mother?

They be like, I wanna play with your team. All these kids from DC are starting to identify my organization as the next

face of DC, and they wanna be a part of it. So the day to day love in the city is the most important, that’s the full circleness, like damn.

But when Joe reached out, and him donating and stuff, that was dope. Cause now that’s like my friend. Like, we really be chopping it up, checking on each other.

That’s a homie and we God willing, can get something done with us coming over.

So you alluded to 33 building up its imprint within the city. Being someone who grew up here, it’s a very different place even 10 years ago with gentrification, and a lot of people being displaced. How do you navigate how the city changes and maintain that imprint?

It’s just adapting. It’s the honest to God truth man. Just adapting. You gotta adapt.

Social media has made it easier to adapt because I’m able to market the program and our vision to parents all over Washington DC. And you know, it’s hearsay.

You win a couple championships and stuff like that. I’m always getting new jerseys and new merchandise. I always want my program to look like the new it thing cause I know that’s one of the first rules in marketing, what you look like. So it’s kind of easier to navigate in DC. It’s just more hardship, more people getting pushed out and stuff like that, but it’s kind of easier because social media’s so fast now. I don’t have to ride through neighborhoods like “hey, how old are y’all wanna play basketball.”

It’s more so, they’ll find me. So you know, it’s cool. I love it. I adapted though.

I’m not one of those dinosaur dudes. I bring the authenticity into this new age DC. It’s two DC’s. It’s the new DC and it’s the old DC and I feel like I’m in the middle.

Like I got so many cool hipster friends and good professional homies. I got those types of friends that’s in higher places and good people that’s making stuff happen in DC. But I still got that side man, that dark side that’s still trying to figure it out and I’m able to decipher and walk that line between both of them. So it’s kind of cool. I love the position I’m in.

Let’s say five, not even five, 10 years from now. What would you like to see from this vision you put together so far?

It’s not even where I would like to see.

It’s what I’m going to see because I’m a determined guy and doer. I’d love to see 33 Hoyas be the biggest program on the east coast. We coming for the top spot.

It’s going to take manpower. It’s going to take dedication. It’s going to take losses.

It’s gonna take failures. It’s going to take a lot, but I know in 10 years we’ll be the number one program in the east coast, we’ll have a big sneaker deal. We’ll have a great scholarship program for kids that’s not just basketball. We’ll have a lot of scholarship athletes. In the next year we’re launching our high school division.

So everything is planted and calculated in the right way. Maybe I’ll even have some more award winning films, you know.

What do you think is the future of sports and specifically basketball culture within DC? Some would say this area has produced good talent and people might not always recognize that or this area’s impact in general. But what do you think is the future of that culture here?

The future is what we make it far as the adults, the parents, the coaches and the organizations. We got to close this gap between us and our surrounding areas, New Jersey, New York. We have to get our athletes prepared to be high top tier players. Our kids have to start getting in shape at eight, nine years old.

What do you think have been some of the obstacles there?

The obstacle is ignorance. And when I say ignorance, I don’t mean it as putting you down. I mean, the actual definition; a lack of knowledge. Parents, they don’t have any clue on their own nutrition. One thing I notice when I see the NBA draft, I always see the son of an NBA player. His father played in the NFL. The mother was a D-1 track star. They understand the body. I don’t care what your skill level is. If you do not work on your body, you will not make

Yeah, definitely. I mean, my whole 12u team is honor roll students. So they’re starting to get that mentality of just getting it done.

No excuse, just get it done. It’s just like in life, you know, once you pull back the layers of everything, it’s BS people and it’s straight up people. When all the layers of you get stripped down. Who are you going to be when you grow up? Are you going to be a BS’er or you going to get stuff done?

And most of ‘em on that trajectory right now to get stuff done, but there’s still some laziness and stuff like that. They not fully as locked in as they could be, but they grow into it.

You mentioned you’re looking to get a high school program going. But talk to me about the age group that you work with now and what it’s like working with kids that young.

So right now I work with five years old to 13 years old. I got beginners, I got intermediate, I got elite. To be honest, it’s like a blank canvas and they don’t know anything about this canvas and I’m showing them step by step how to paint, how to do this, this goes first. I’m teaching you this because of that. I’m teaching confidence.

I’ve been training kids for the last two years and they are so much better than they were the first time I got ‘em. And it’s teaching them patience. Like when you first couldn’t make a layup, then two months later you’re making 10 layups in a row. Then the parents start to believe in what you’re teaching your kid, their kid. Then it’s just a lot of family atmosphere. We make it fun.

We cracking jokes. We learn and we get better. But it’s rewarding, man. I go to sleep happy.

Talk to me about the parents’ reception of the program. Cause I’m sure, just trying to remember back to when I played sports, some parents might be apprehensive or not as engaged at first with certain stuff. Have you seen any change in their attitude?

Yeah they’re really good people as far as believing in the program a lot. So the 12u team that I have, I had them since they were eight years old. So I had them for the last four years. So we have become family.

And they’ve seen their kid go from being an okay player to a great player. And mostly all of those (Kavon motions above to a huge row of basketball trophies in his office) are their trophies. So it’s just like, we became family during the process. It’s great, man.

I love them. I love the parents, man, we became friends. They call me just off the regular you know what I mean? It’s great.

6 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

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sports JUSTIN CHEEKS | SPORTS WRITER

@IWontWin4Real

Athlete Spotlight: Forgotten Athletes of the DMV Area

Bring the Blue and Gold back?

Washington, DC Sports briefly held one of the more unique colorways in sports: blue, bronze and black. Is it time to bring the colorway back?

The blue and gold/bronze uniform colorway was first worn by the Washington Capitals when the team rebranded in 1995.

The Wizards and Mystics also followed suit as all teams were owned by Abe Pollin.

DerMarr Johnson Hometown: Riverdale, MD/Washington, DC High School: Parkdale (Riverdale, MD), Newport School (Kensington, MD), Maine Central Institute (Pittsfield, ME) College: University of Cincinnati

Hometown: Cheltenham, MD High School: St. John’s College (Washington, DC) College: University of Maryland College Career Avg: 15.3 PTS 7.9 REB 3.1 AST 1.0 BLK

College Career Avg: 12.6 PTS 3.8 REB 1.4 AST 0.9 BLK Conference USA Freshman of the Year (2000) 3rd Team All-Conference USA (2000) NBA Draft: 1st RD, 6th Overall, by Atlanta Hawks (2000)

NCAA National Champion (2006), ACC Rookie of the Year (2006), 2nd Team All-ACC (2006,07,08), 1st Team All-ACC Tourney (2007), Acc All-Freshman Team (2006) NBA Draft: 1st RD, 2nd Overall by Washington Mystics (2009)

Fast forward to 2011, Ted Leonsis had ownership of all three D.C. teams and every team had made the switch to the current red, white, and blue uniform colorway.

Position: Forward

Position: Forward/Guard

One of those players who was ahead of his time. 6’9 forward/guard, athletic, could handle the ball, finish, and shoot.

DerMarr Johnson did not have the traditional play style of someone of his stature during the early 2000s. Coming out of high school Johnson was a consensus All-American and regarded as one of the top recruits in the nation. He chose to play college basketball at the University of Cincinnati. During his one year as a Bearcat, the team ranked number one in the nation (12 weeks) and earned a second seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Johnson showed that he was pro ready as he played alongside teammates and future NBA players Kenyon Martin, Kenny Satterfield, and Pete Mickeal. In the 2000 NBA Draft DerMarr Johnson was selected with the sixth overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks. After progressing in his first two seasons as a pro, Johnson would expe-

Marissa Coleman

rience another life changing moment.

On September 13, 2002, Johnson’s car crashed into a tree resulting in him cracking four vertebrae and nearly leaving him paralyzed. He ended up missing the entire 2002-03 NBA season as he recovered from injury. Many were skeptical that Johnson would return to the NBA, but he did. In 2004 the Denver Nuggets signed Johnson and for three seasons there he served as a role player on playoff teams.

By 2008 Johnson had played his last game in NBA, he then went on to play professionally overseas in China, Italy, Venezuela, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

DerMarr Johnson is currently the Director of Player Development for the University of Cincinnati Men’s Basketball.

Consensus All-American coming out of high school. Coleman was named Washington D.C Gatorade Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. She also helped St.John’s win two WCAC titles, 2002 and 2004. Coleman chose to stay local and play college basketball at the University of Maryland. In four years at College Park, she became one of Maryland’s all-time greats. As a true freshman Coleman made an immediate impact, winning ACC Rookie of the Year and helping the Lady Terps win their first NCAA Championship in 2006. Over the next three seasons Maryland made three NCAA tournament appearances, including two trips to the Elite Eight. Coleman currently ranks top ten all-time in points, rebounds, assists, and blocks at Maryland. In the 2009 WNBA Draft the Washington Mystics selected Marissa Coleman with the second overall pick. Coleman made the WNBA

All-Rookie Team her first season. She spent her first three seasons in Washington and then subsequently 2 seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks. In 2014 Coleman signed with Indiana Fever and was named an All-Star in 2015. As well playing in the WNBA, in 2015 Coleman signed overseas to play professionally.

In 2016 she helped Fernabahçe win the Turkish Cup while being named Turkish Cup Finals MVP. In 2018 Coleman retired from the WNBA but continues to play professionally overseas.

Marissa Coleman currently plays in France for the Tango Bourges Basket. also the Vice President of Gaming Society, a content and gaming platform bringing a fan-forward voice, education and the athlete point of view of sports betting.

With the Capitals and Mystics both winning championships within the past five years a uniform rebrand seems unlikely.

For those like me who were first introduced to the D.C. teams before the most recent uniform rebrand, wouldn’t mind an alternate uniform using strictly blue, gold/bronze, black and white.

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 7

The Top 10 Sneakers of DC Culture D.C.’s impact on shoe culture is often overlooked. What shoes come to mind when you think of D.C.’s sneaker culture?

STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY JORDAN HOWIE Here in DC, sneakers are a part of our identity. They represent the unique, innovative nature we’ve inherited throughout the past several decades. We established iconic trends long before the “street fashion” of today spread amongst the masses like wildfire. What’s the first pair of sneakers to come to mind when you think of DC? New Balances, of course. To this day there are claims that the trend around New Balance 990s originated in cities like New York and Philly, but when you really read your history, you’d know that DC drug dealers started rocking the shoe in order to appear under the radar during the Raegan administration’s crack-down (no pun intended) on drugs in the mid-80s. It’s stories like these that birthed the hype over other shoes like foams, or beef and broccolis; but that barely scratches the surface.

Fast forward to the first half of the 2010s (High School for us), life was all about three things: Facebook, girls, and sneakers. Every year would be filled with legendary releases from Jordan and Nike, among others. Kids were getting jumped, and sometimes even killed, for foams and J’s. We rode the metro to the outermost stops of the red and blue lines to buy and exchange shoes with complete strangers we met through social media.

These were wild times, indeed, but completely necessary. Nonetheless, all the sneakers we loved during these times were made possible by some specific brands and silhouettes that got us interested in shoes in the first place. Let’s run down a list of sneakers we found to be most influential to DC culture and lifestyle.

1. New Balance 99x Series

New Balance has maintained a presence in DC that is unmatched.

Whether it be the 990s, 992s, 993s, or even the 498s that gained popularity during the shift to the 2010s, New Balance has undoubtedly become the most influential sneaker brand in the area. With a combination of style and comfort, a good grey pair will compliment any fit. There aren’t many shoes you can wear to the club, the gym, and work, and still not look out of place.

Though the rest of the world is just now catching on to the hype, DC natives (and Dads of America) know the true importance of New Balance sneakers.

2.Nike Air Foamposite One “Eggplant”

Arguably the greatest foam colorway ever released, the eggplants are a certified classic in DC. The foamposite, debuted under the likes of Penny Hardaway and Mike Bibby, began its fame mostly among the hoopers. From the late 90s and late 2000s, foams maintained select fan groups, with support mainly coming from DC, New York City, and other Nike followers around the country.

About a year after the Royals released in 2007, the Eggplants would come to change the way everyone looked at foams – but not because they released. In 2008, DMV rapper

Wale Folarin appeared in an LRG ad in Dime Magazine, rocking the unreleased Eggplant foams, months before they were set to released.

Due to the hype this ad created, the Eggplants generated so much success with the 2009 drop that Nike was forced to re-release them in 2010. To this day, the sneaker is considered one of the grails.

3. Nike Air Foamposite Pro “Pearl”

The foamposite one was overlooked in other areas for several reasons, the main reason being that the silhouette and design were rather unattractive. The Pros, however, made the shoe much easier to look at, for many. With the shiny Nike check added to the side of the shoe, the Pearls can be looked at as a sexier version of the foamposite. Ironically, much like the foamposite one with Mike Bibby, Penny Hardaway was not the one that debuted the Pearls on the court, rather it was Tim Duncan during the 1998 NBA All-Star weekend. The Pearls were re-released in 2010, along with the

culture Eggplant, Copper, and Cough Drop foamposite ones.

4. Nike Air Max Uptempo 97

The Uptempo 97s were a classic everyday sneaker in DC. The thing I admire most about this shoe is its duality of appearance. On one hand, the original black and white colorway presents a simplistic, uniform look to the shoe that enables it to compliment a wide variety of outfit combinations. On the other hand, the chunky silhouette and wacky and artistic raindrop design on the midsole gives the shoe a fun look.

The Uptempo 97s were originally released in 1997 under the name Nike Air Max Uptempo III, and were the final pair of the Uptempo sneakers Scottie Pippen would wear before transitioning to his own signature basketball shoe.

Its unique style can be credited to more than just the colorway and design; the CB94 actually incorporated Air Max2 technology, which introduced multiple pressures to four midsole chambers. The chamber units under and behind the heel were inflated to 5 PSI for cushion support, while the units toward the middle and outer sides of the shoe were at 25 PSI for stability, hence the “squared” concept. Accompanied by four support straps, this shoe was both stylish and complex.

The Barkleys were yet another “big man” basketball shoe embraced by DC.

7. Nike Air Bakin

5. Nike Total Air Foamposite Max “Tim Duncan”

Worn by the Twin Towers, Tim Duncan and David Robinson, the Total Air Foamposite Max was dubbed the “big man shoe” upon its 1998 release. Nevertheless, its sleek design and holographic features made the sneaker a huge attraction in the DC area. The Duncans, as they are widely known today, almost resembled a stylish work boot, which was widely accepted in DC considering our history with boots. Yet another sneaker and colorway that can match with virtually anything, you couldn’t have gone a day without seeing them on feet at the metro, at school, or even at the gogo.

6. Nike Air Max CB 94

Known around the way as the Barkleys, the CB 94 has always been a local favorite since its 1994 release.

The Bakins are another boot-like sneaker that ran rapid throughout the District. The all-black mid-sole, met by the loud red side panels and yellow laces, produced a colorful clash of dark and vibrant. Released in 1997, the Bakins have been seen worn on-court by Tim Hardaway.

Interesting enough, they were initially recalled following backlash from the Muslim community due to controversy over the Nike Air logo on the back of the shoe resembling “Allah” in Arabic text. However, the shoe made an impact in DC, which ironically has a prominent Muslim population.

8. Nike Air Flightposite

Though apart of the Foamposite lineage, the Flightposite was a revolutionary sneaker both in the basketball world as well as in DC. The Flightposite featured a similar foam-like design and structure to the original Foamposite, but it was lighter and slimmer. Inspired by sports car sihlouettes and the human foot, the shoe was largely worn by Kevin Garnette, Penny Hardaway, and Jason Kidd. For many, the more attractive feature of the Flightposite was the zipper sleeve that could cover and reveal the laces and tongue. Nonetheless, although not as popular as the Foamposite worldwide, DC recognized the Flightposite for what it was and adopted it as a staple in the local sneaker culture.

9. Air Jordan XI “Cool Grey”

We can’t name off a list of sneakers impactful to DC without naming a retro Jordan, of course. As one of the most popular sneaker brands to ever exist, Jordans have a long history in the District. Though we wore all models from 1 to 17, a few come to mind when thinking of the most impactful to the area: the Jordan 3, 9, and 11.

DC positioned itself at the forefront of sneaker and clothing fashion decades ago. From “Hood” to “Hipster” fashion, Jordans were always a must-have in our collections. Many talk down on the Michael Jordan Wizards era, as he was experiencing the decline of his career. To us, though, Michael Jordan gave us some of his greatest sneaker colorways as a Wizard. The Cool Grey 11s, one of several legendary colorways on one of the most iconic sneaker silhouette of all time, mean more to DC than just another 11. During the rise to popularity of Coach John Thompson’s Georgetown basketball team, Georgetown became an iconic representation of college basketball in black communities across the nation. With Georgetown’s Grey and blue theme, as well as our pre-existing infatuation with light grey New Balances, the Cool Greys almost seemed to fit our identity perfectly.

10. Prada America’s Cup

We may love our nikes, but don’t get it confused: DC has a long history with designer sneakers. One of the most prominent sneaker designers to take the area by storm was Prada.

For a city filled with fashionable youth that like to dress up every once in a while, Prada gave us exactly what we needed. I remember going to my sister’s prom send-off back in the day and the older people in the family were complaining about one of the group’s prom dates wearing his pradas with his tux. To them it was informal, but to us, it was the perfect convergence of formal wear and street fashion. Pradas were versatile enough to compliment formal, semi-formal, and casual dress all at once. In spite of the recent comeback of the America’s Cup, we must remember that DC was played a lead role in making Pradas what they are today.

8 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Mural Unveiling SHEDRICK PELT | PHOTOGRAPHER

@sdotpdotmedia

“One thing about the Black community, and the allies that support us, is that we gonna celebrate our heroes and heroines shining. Those that push hard and sacrifice to break those systemic glass ceilings. On April 7, 2022 the Senate confirmed Justice Ketanji Jackson and all but shattered any preconceived ideas of what a Supreme Court Justice is and should be. And although “they” created a circus around the entire process she stood with dignity throughout its entirety.

Thanks to the #SheWillRise & No Kings Collective the following day a mural dedicated to this amazing moment in history was unveiled at 14th and U. The day saw Howard University marching band, DC native hip-hop artist Fly Zyah, and plenty of Black and brown faces come out for this joyous event.

One of the most special things about her confirmation is the representation it provides for Black girls/women all around the world. It’s matters to see people that look like you in prominent positions in society. It screams “You can do anything you put your mind to!” Without a doubt we’ll continue to see Black girls that grow into Black women that take over the world! Congrats sis! #justiceketanjijackson ***All images shot on Kodak film (Kodak Gold 120 & Ultramax 400)”

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 9

Nia Keturah Calhoun is Navigating the World of Art Without Compromise

r summeide arts gu

was very blessed to have my hand held coming through it, which was really nice.

But I remember being a younger artist and being one, confused, but two, frustrated and thinking I want to paint on walls. I want to put black people on walls around the city. How do I do that? Do I knock on the front door and be like, Hey, can I paint your wall?

I think it’s beautiful because I do think public art is good for everybody. So I think the function of all these murals in the city are really, really cool. I’m very blessed to now be in community with a lot of people who are doing it, shout out to of course, No Kings Collectives, my big brothers and sisters. But besides them like Anikon oh my gosh, that man is like, to me, that man is like walking DC legend, black history. Like the fact that he had just put black people, but specifically black women all over this city is like crazy to me. I love his work. I think there’s always this tension though, between kids who just have spray cans and muralists who are getting paid to do these walls.

Especially young kids like teenagers, like this kid I was talking to would probably really like to paint a mural as well, but the access points aren’t there. So one of the things I really want to do as I grow and climb... I have a lot of young homies and I want to make sure that if they wanna paint a mural, they could figure out ,one, how to do it, but two, get paid for doing it. And then three, have there be a space for them to learn how to do it. Shout outs to Words, Beats and Life, because they have been doing that work for a long time.

The Artist Talks Ketanji Brown Jackson Mural, the DC Art Scene and More

NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR DC is one of the most unique cities in the country in terms of its arts scene. You will see everything from street graffiti, political art to fine art exhibitions and installations.

Throughout each street, you will likely see a mural or sculpture of some kind, paying homage to history or just celebrating the rich culture of the city.

Nia Keturah Calhoun, is one of the constant contributors to this very scene. Nia is a multidisciplinary hailing from Maryland, who is constantly creating art that celebrates Black culture in America. If you have been in DC within the past few years, it’s possible you have passed by her art without even knowing. She has recently created a cherry blossom sculpture that was acquired by the Mayor’s office, and sits within SE DC. She created visual artwork for Rare Essence’s Overnight Scenario detailing the famous scene the song plays out, and also painted some street dividers with a curious question on them, “What do they call math in DC? AD+MO.” Recently, Nia was tasked with her first full mural. The subject? Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. By the time Nia finished the mural, the Senate officially voted to confirm Jackson and send her to join the court.

I caught up with Nia at the corner of 14th and S Street NW, in front of the mural to pick her brain about the mural making process, and how she approaches her art.

Introduce yourself to the people.

My name is Nia Calhoun. I am an artist. I grew up in Maryland. I’m now based in DC. I do a lot of things.I paint paintings, I paint murals, I’m a sculptor; but really I just come up with ideas that I think relate to the black experience and I try to figure out the best way to talk about them.

Okay, we are literally right here in front of your mural of Kentanj Brown Jackson, soon to be the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice. Her appointment was historical for obvious reasons, first black woman to the court. How did this mural come about?

There is this really really incredibly dope and important group of black women for black women who formed this organization called Sister SCOTUS, [Sister on the Supreme Court of the United States]. And for years they’ve been advocating, lobbying to get a black woman on the court because of a lot of reasons, one, Clarence Thomas has been on the court forever. And then before that we had Thurgood Marshall. But if you think about people who are deeply empathetic, who are really relatable, who will look at things from a lot of different sides, to me that almost embodies a black woman. So they’ve been advocating for a long time to get a black woman on the court and two years ago they did a mural to lobby and advocate to get a black Supreme Court Justice. When Kentanji Brown Jackson was nominated, they really started being like, okay, we have to do a mural to celebrate this, we’ve been going so hard for this for such a long time and they linked up with No Kings Collective, which is a great artist collective, they do a lot of things. They do like events in the city, it’s almost hard to tell you what they do. But they linked up with them like we need an artist; and I had been painting with them for about a year on their mural team and before that they had just been mentors for me for a long time. So they suggested me as a black woman who does murals in DC, that felt aligned, so I was very blessed to just be connected to the right folks to be able to do this and then celebrate the nom-

ination and her and what it took for her to get there really.

When looking at the piece, what elements factored into what you included into it?

Was watching the actual hearing a big part of it or was it just her nomination in general?

I think it’s a little bit of both, right? Because I thought a lot about the history of who she was literally and figuratively. And so the whole style is like my attempt at AfriCOBRA art, which was a black arts movement that came out of Chicago in the sixties and seventies, and that was when she was born.

So I thought it was really cool to look at the landscape that she would’ve stepped into as an American and what would’ve been black art when she was born. So I thought about her historically in that sense, but even on the mural, there’s this little sketch of her and her dad at a kitchen table when he was studying for the bar, she would sit there and be in her coloring books when he would be studying his law journals.

So I just thought that that was really dope. I wanted it to be like her personal narrative, but also a larger narrative of black women in this country, which is why right below her is Constance Baker Motley, who was the first black woman to be a federal judge; and they share a birthday, which I think is crazy.

Oh, wow.

Super cool. And I’m almost embarrassed to say, but I didn’t really know a lot about Constance Baker Motley before she mentioned her in her speeches and her confirmation hearing, but she was a baddie. She was the person who filed Brown vs. Board [of Education]. She was a clerk for Thurgood Marshall. She was a civil rights attorney who worked with MLK and just really put a lot on the line. She was the Manhattan Borough President, she was that girl, you know what I mean?

And I was like, wow, she’s almost become lost in popular history and narrative which is really messed up. So I wanted to highlight both of those. But also watching the hearing, one of the things that stood

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Nia Keturah Calhoun poses in front of her Ketanji Brown Jackson mural at the corner of 14th and S ST NW. out was just how ridiculous they were being and vile to this black woman, because of sexism and racism they felt like they were able to do that; and I realized when I was watching them that it hurts to break a glass ceiling to be the first of anything, like your head will get bloodied. So there’s a lot of jagged shapes on here, a lot of sharp angles that represents her breaking through that. And lastly, I wanted to put in my thoughts about it. I think that it’s really naive and disingenuous to think that just because we have the first of something that everything has changed because it hasn’t. Racism still exists. Sexism still exists. All the systemic oppression that’s going on in this country still exists right?

Her nomination doesn’t change that but it could be a sign for better things to come.

Which is why there’s a sun rising on this side and it’s rising on her. I was like, oh yeah, like the Negro National Anthem, facing the rising sun, a new day’s begun, let us march on.... so it’s like yeah, it’s a new day. Are we going to keep moving and grooving and doing what we can to make where we live and the communities that we live in better?

You mentioned a lot of the symbolism you used within the piece. Was it emotional at all for you as a black woman to be tasked with this? Did you feel apprehensive about taking this on?

Wow, that’s a great question. The answer is yes to those questions because you realize how many people have fought for this. How many women, like Constance Baker Motley, but also a whole lot of unnamed women who wish that they could have ascended to those heights and fought to ascend to those heights. For every law school, there

is the first black woman who had to attend that law school, you know what I mean? I felt all that history when I was doing it and I wanted to do something that would specifically make black women proud. I wanted them to stop and take pictures of it. She’s a justice for everybody but this mural is for black women and black girls.

It was also the first mural that I got to design by myself. I’ve worked on collaborative things before, but this is a hundred percent me. I had a great team of people who helped me put it up on the wall, but as far as it being my first mural, it’s really my first solo mural. And so that also felt pressure cause I wanted it to be good because it was my first, I wanted black women to be proud of it and sometimes I would be freaking out on the wall. There was this one day, I think it was like the last day I was painting. I was up on the lift 30 feet in the sky and I looked out and there’s this really cute black dad walking down the street holding the hand of this little girl who must have been like four and they just stopped.

You could see that he was telling her who it was and she was smiling at this black girl who I’m sure looks like a lot of members of her family, myself on this lift, you know what I mean? And I was like, wow, that’s who I’m doing it for. I shed a little thug tear but that was really special to me.

Speaking on murals in general, DC I would say, is a very visual city. If you drive through the city you’ll see a lot of artwork, a lot of murals, a lot of physical art pieces. It really seems like the city tries to cater to that. What do you think of the overall art space here and how does it feel to be a contributor to that?

There was a huge barrier of entry that I

Can you speak to what it’s like to be an artist trying to navigate their way within this space in the area as well as general advice you would give to someone who’s trying to navigate being an artist, getting into murals and things like that.

I think the thing that changed it for me was finding mentors and being like, I’m very serious. I am willing to run spray cans for you.

Really kind of apprenticing with folks, but you have to come correct to do that, which is hard. And you have to be willing to put yourself out there, which is also hard. As an introvert, I didn’t want do that for a long time, but the other avenues to do it, which is one, you know somebody who owns a building, and in a city that’s rapidly gentrifying, and costs are rapidly increasing, the people who own buildings are usually not people who live in the community. So it’s hard to just be a kid and know somebody who owns a building and has a wall. Or the other thing you do is you go through the city, but that also has barriers of access because you have to have experience most of the time to get those grants from the DC commission to do them.

So it’s like when you apply for a job and they say you need work experience. You’re like, how am I going to get work experience unless someone hires me. That’s what it feels like trying to do your first mural in the city. But I think it’s really figuring out who you like in the city and then sending them an email, or sending them a DM and being like hey, can I assist you on a mural one time, I would really love to learn how to do this. I’m really interested in getting into murals. What I’ve learned is people like Anikon, people like Keyonna from Congress Heights Art Center, they’re so giving of themselves and the way that they really want to reach back and pull up, you know a high tide rises all ships, that love is in the city. You just got

10 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

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Oh man.

r summeide arts gu

**laughs** I mean it’s bullshit, right? The black aesthetic I think is people something that people really like. I was recently told, ‘Hey, we really like your mural, it’s super black.

Could you do that, plus like maybe more white.’ And I was like, what? What does that mean?

I mean the rent is too high. I do all my work in the city and I still can’t really afford to be here, which is crazy, and I’m doing okay you know? So to think about younger people who are trying to come here and once again, younger people will always drive culture so if there’s not a space for them to be, places where they can even hang out and eat for a reasonable price. If we’re not cultivating spaces where artists can come to chill and connect with.... like I remember being younger and the Durkle store was just the spot. You would just go in there, meet so many people. Same thing with Commonwealth.

to work past feeling like everything isn’t set up against you because I was definitely there for a long time. It was just like the barrier of entry is too high, I don’t know how to do this.

So what is it like being a black artist and making very black culture specific pieces within a space that is as you mentioned, is rapidly gentrifying? Do you find more purpose in what you’re doing because of those circumstances? Does it make you feel a certain type of way? How do you feel when you’re producing art in a space like that?

It’s really interesting because I’ll get commission requests to do something where I feel like I would have to compromise on blackness and it’s like, wow, like money is nice but I have to make art because I think it’s so important. My dad is from East Capitol street and my mom is from Cherry Hill and Baltimore. Very black. Both of those places are very black and they made it a point having very black kids, to surround us in black art. And I’m still unpacking all the ways in which that was amazing for me growing up. But when I was working with young people in the city, I realized a lot of them hadn’t had the same exposure to black visual artists that I had growing up. I mean my exposure was really, my parents had all the hood classics just hanging up.

But I was just like, that’s important. And I was used to seeing black people painted and how beautiful that was.

We’ve always been into art.

Always, black people have always been making art arguably better than anyone else, but I know that that’s still important.

So if I can be like how my parents were to me and put black people around this city… you know, 14th street five years ago did not look like us. Do you know what I mean?

It didn’t feel like this. And so sometimes I think it’s an important reminder to just be like, we’re here and we’ve always been here, and a lot of my art is reaching back to those connection points. I paint my former students a lot because I want to remind them always, I want them to be bold and audacious. This is your city and don’t let anybody tell you different or make you feel like you don’t belong where you belong, period. And that’s for my kids who were at Ballou and that’s for my kids who went to Duke. Both instances. These are your cities.

Being a multidisciplinary artist, you have different mediums that you work with.

You mentioned sculpture work, painting, graphic and digital. How do you cater to all of those mediums?

I think it’s like what gets the idea across best? So for a few years I was doing this project when I was trying to make a fake FUBU alternate reality. Like what if FUBU made everything for black people? Like cell phones by FUBU, and products that would like... spray that got rid of Karen’s, like FUBU you could really do anything with. And I’m like, what’s the best way for me to talk about this; there should be a helpline. So I made a helpline where you could call this 1-877 number and there was an audio recording. And just figuring out different ways to make art that is so fun. So sometimes it’s like a painting and I’m like, yeah that shows enough. But a lot of times it’s just like no, I have to make this move, so I’ll do an animation for it instead. But the best projects are the projects that I can do

That’s a throwback.

Nia holds up her sketch of the mural for comparison. a little bit of everything with. But it’s really just about what I think will best represent the idea.

You’ve mentioned teaching a few times, how much does working with students inspire you?

I miss it. I stopped doing it at the end of 2020 and just started doing art full time.

But I was just telling my homegirl the other day I need to find young people again because I think my favorite artists have always been phenomenal because they’ve surrounded themselves with young people.

I have this great friend and she has this book called Things We Found so far, and one of the things she says in the book is sometimes your mentors will be younger than you. And I think teaching, yeah I’m able to put them onto things that I know, but they do the same thing for me. They’re like, you need to listen to this or the way they think about the world even, because their generation is different from mine and more progressive. And they’ve had access to all of the answers since they were kids with Google. I remember learning about Google. These niggas have always known that you could ask the internet questions and it will give you,maybe not the answer, but an answer, which is crazy.

So are you optimistic about the art scene in DC from your experiences with working with younger people or what you see or witness being in the art community?

I’m cautiously optimistic because DC as a city just has a really great culture and a super crazy history of art, period. Furthermore, to zoom out the District of Columbia, the DMV in general, like the first black art show was at the University of Maryland.

So there’s this crazy history of black arts in this city and in the surrounding areas and that’s not going away no matter who comes in or how high the rent is, the city will have amazing black art in it because Washingtonians are just mad resilient, and they’ll figure out a way to make their art.

I’m cautiously optimistic because it is becoming harder to do certain things, right? One of those things is maintaining

art spaces. You keep calling me a young artist, but I’m not that young, but that’s okay. **laughs** But when I first came home from Spelman 10 years ago there would be all these underground hip hop shows. Like Bombay Nas and I mean, before that growing up, there was always a go-go that was Metro accessible that you could get to; and the disappearance of those things are really concerning. It’s such a big part of our history, our culture and our joy that I think there has to be a focus on maintaining it and preserving it and celebrating it for sure.

Shout out to Yaddiya and Moechella right?

But we got to make sure we hold space for young people to come through and do art, and feel free and not have a lot of parameters and those spaces dried up. If I was 20 something and I wanted to do an art show, I don’t know where I would go do it.

I don’t know where that would be and that’s a problem because when I was 20, there were a whole bunch of kids who were like, yeah there’s this yoga studio and we’re going to go take it over. And I want there to be more spaces like that in the city. And there are certainly people who are doing that work, once again shoutout to Keyonna, Congress Heights Center, Black Swan Academy, the way that they lift up young black artists, young black students, they’re definitely doing that work. But even certain institutions like Eaton hotel have really partnered with a lot of orgs. There are definitely people doing the work and we got to put our support behind them and get them more support financially and otherwise so they can keep doing that.

I have this notion or theory that DC as of recently now loves black art, the aesthetic of it. They love to sell that to people without actually putting support into the actual artists or the actual people who create that culture that they then sell to people. Do you agree with that sentiment? I don’t think there are alot of physical art spaces that people can go to, yet I still see a lot of art initiatives in the city. What do you think about that contradiction?

Come on for real. Like that’s where I first met, like Scooty and people who I really still to this day look up to. But we were able to meet because there were these places... and there are definitely things like SOMEWHERE, shoutout to Dom, and Maketto definitely exists, right? And they definitely do work to make those spaces feel homey.

But I definitely used to take my students in certain spaces and they felt like they didn’t belong there. I’m like once again, this your city, you belong in these spaces. Don’t let people tell you otherwise. So I really would love to see people putting more money into that.

You know what it’s giving, do you watch Atlanta?

What’s it giving? I do watch Atlanta.

Did you see that episode? It wasn’t the most recent, but it was the one before that, with the fashion house?

Yeah, when the white fashion house accidently made a t-shirt referencing the central park five and had the fake initiatives to give back in order to ‘make up’ for that.

That’s what it’s giving. I’m like, where is this money going? What are we doing with this?

We got to do some thoughtful planning because what I don’t want to happen here is.... what happened to San Francisco when they really became a tech hub... San Francisco has a lot of great culture. The bay area is where the Panthers got started, psychedelic movement, think about Jimmy Hendrx, it just has this crazy rich history.

But the normal person can’t live in San Francisco anymore. So the reason why people wanted to flock there, this wonderful culture is now like a copy and paste young white millennial city because those are the people who can afford to live there.

So I don’t want that to happen to DC where it’s just like, yeah people want to come here because we have this great culture. We have this great music in Gogo. We have this amazing history and flavors. I mean, we’ve been here for how many seconds and we’ve met so many characters just shouting across the street. I want generations to come and to feel like this, and that takes thoughtful planning, that takes a mayoral office that really cares Actually cares.

Yeah, actually cares. So yeah man, I definitely don’t have the answer, just a lot of questions.

You mentioned people will reach out to you and they’ll love the work you do because it’s very black. But some people might come to you and want you to do something that’s more vanilla or compromises the things you believe in. How do you as an artist navigate that?

I just be ghosting people. I’m still working on the power of no and being like absolutely not.

So you don’t compromise.

No. What I will do is ,I will collaborate. I love collaboration and I love creative abrasion where we’re fighting to make our ideas happen in the best way that they can happen. I’m always down for that. But compromising who I am, what I believe in, like that’s the hard no.

So recently, you know Nelly’s went through it because they thought it was a good idea to drag a black woman down a set of stairs. Like wow, how dumb are you? To be honest, as a black woman, I just always never really fucked with Nelly’s to begin with so it was never really a thing for me. But the artist who has the mural on the side of Nelly’s, the ducks, it got defaced and now it’s smudgy. She was like, will you redo it with me? I feel like it’s just so important. I’m like, you know, I’m gay and sometimes I date girls and you’re trying to use me and my blackness right? You want me to redo this mural with you so it can be a getaway pass for you to do it.

Like in Atlanta.

Like in Atlanta. **laughs** I told her absolutely not and I directed her to some organization she needed to talk to about why maybe she shouldn’t redo it either.

And then the same thing, another white artist came to me recently and said “hey, we should collaborate on this black lives matter project.” I’m like what do you have to say about that? Do you have an interesting view? What I love and what I really fuck with No Kings for, this organization collected, founded by a black man and an Asian man is they know when to throw the alley oop to someone else, which I really love. That’s very important.

So when they did the night market, they found Asian artists to do the art. I’m like, that makes sense, it’s an Asian event, y’all should find Asian artists. And when they needed someone to do the Kentanji Brown mural, they’re like, it needs to be a black woman. They’re like it shouldn’t be us, but a lot of people don’t wanna throw that alley oop. I’m like why would I collaborate with you for black lives matter? That’s not making sense. Throw the oop. So a lot of times it’s just like no, and you don’t really care about black lives mattering, you just care about a bag and the perception of you caring.

You’re always on alert to bullshit?

You got to keep your third eye open, they will really play you in these streets and have you looking crazy. I’m very blessed to have very thorough group chats, a lot of real niggas surround me and because a lot of real niggas surround me, I think there’s this barometer of no. Because if my friends knew the situation, they would drag me and a lot of times when we see people mess up, it’s like damn you don’t have any real niggas around you, I can tell because you’re out here wildin. Shoutout to Kanye, who I just feel like needs four real niggas around him, shoutout to him somehow.

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 11

Exhibitions to See in DC and Online Right Now

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exhibitions More Exhibitions to See

ATIYA DORSEY | CONTRIBUTOR

Home Away from Home Last month, I had the privilege of viewing Home Away from Home at the West End location of the Arena Social Arts Club in Washington, DC. This exhibition serves as the first solo show for artist Laurenee Gauvin. Born and raised in Port-auPrince, Haiti, Gauvin began showing interest in the arts at the age of four, sketching on sticky notes that she would later sell to her family and friends. At the age of 14, Gauvin relocated to the United States, making Maryland her new home away from Haiti. Facing challenges such as adjusting to an American lifestyle and a language barrier, Gauvin expressed her emotions through art, culminating in Home Away from Home.

Upon entering the gallery, I immediately noticed how quiet the space was—mainly because I was the only person in the room. This silence made room for my wandering thoughts as my eyes bounced around the room, gazing at the vibrant colors that were infused into each of the seven canvases. As I stared harder at each canvas, I began to see bits and

by another artist who I deeply admire: Jean-Michel Basquiat—one of the most celebrated artists of the Neo-Expressionism movement.

Modern Muse Series: Gelatin Silver Prints

I find both Basquiat and Gauvin’s respective works to be comforting as they each depict figures that make me feel like I am a part of the two-dimensional communities they form on exhibition walls.

Despite not being able to decipher whole images of these figures, I am able to create stories of my own that detail the lives lived by each “person.” The agency that this gives me as a viewer is powerful and it only draws me closer to works by artists like Basquiat and Gauvin.

“The ideas that I had of a muse were the quintessential muses [or] goddesses that you saw [in] European paintings because that’s all I knew,” said artist Redeat Wondemu when asked if her definition of a muse has changed after producing her solo exhibition Modern Muse.

From Gauvin’s use of vibrant, child-like colors to her incorporation of unique shapes, her canvases create a warm environment that allows viewers to not only use their imaginations but also vividly see the colorful spectrum of emotions she experienced while making her journey from Haiti to Maryland. By the end of my visit, the figures within the canvases became a part of my memo-

A close-up of the Home Away from Home exhibition. pieces of what appeared to be the faces and bodies of people. My mind then quickly attempted to make these images clear—as if I were putting a puzzle piece together. Once I finally realized that the canvases were not meant to be clear-cut images of people, the figures in each canvas began to feel familiar to me as if they were close friends or family members. After some time, I figured out why their disfigured bodies felt so familiar.

Their presence reminded me of works

ries, but Gauvin’s story remained with me. Her story is beautifully depicted, and I hope that others are able to experience being in the presence of the figures that gave me so much comfort while viewing her work.

To see Gauvin pay homage to her Haitian heritage, head over to Home Away from Home in West End. The exhibition is on display until August 21, 2022.

Want to see more exhibitions this summer? Here is a list of current exhibitions and shows in the Washington, DC area to explore:

Washington, DC American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center What to see: Caribbean Transitions Description: 20 Caribbean American artists showcase work, revealing unique connections between the Caribbean and the United States.

Dates on View: June 11 – August 7, 2022 Admission: Free

She went on to say, “You don’t see us [Black women] as muses—you see us as backgrounds, so this made [Modern Muse] personal.”

Modern Muse is a series of portraits that explores unconventional standards of beauty. Wondemu uses gelatin silver prints to showcase the new spectrum of beauty from which she derives her own definition of what it means to be a muse.

Each portrait captures the sitter in a way that they would like to be seen, making each portrait unique. One of my favorite portraits within the series is “I. Alezoj.” I sat in front of this portrait for at least 15 minutes. I was mainly captivated by the muse’s gaze, which seemed to be staring directly at me. In this moment, the room felt as though we were the only ones in it, examining one another with our eyes.

The connection she initiated through her gaze allowed me to feel as though we had met in person, making her story as a muse that more personal.

After speaking with Wondemu at the opening reception for Modern Muse at Art of Noize in Washington, DC, I was not only thoroughly impressed by her work visually, but I was also in awe of her detailed artistic process behind the series. To start, Wondemu shared with me that she had been working on this series for three years, but she had been building connections with each sitter for over five years.

The connection she developed with each muse became even more evident to me after learning about the multiple trips she made to Ethiopia to photograph each woman and the archival toning process she used to produce the final images seen within the series. The historical toning process is extremely detailed and extensive. For this series, Wondemu specifically used the selenium toning process—a darkroom process that changes the color of black and white photographs.

This time-consuming process shows just how much Wondemu values the time and presence of each muse—something she also makes clear through her intentional use of photographic storytelling.

Within every sitting session, Wondemu

Redeat Wondemu’s “I. Alezoj” at Art of Noize. had the opportunity to tell each muse’s unique story of navigating womanhood.

One way she was able to accomplish this was by asking each muse how they felt walking over to the studio that day. This question prompted so many different facial expressions and body languages from each muse, creating a captivating array of emotions on film. Seeing this array of emotions expressed was important to me because we, Black women, are often seen and captured through a single lens. Through Modern Muse, Wondemu challenges everyone to view us in all of our forms, especially as the muses we have always been.

Overall, I am deeply inspired by Wondemu and the muses who are actively challenging euro-centric aesthetics through their presence on the gallery walls. As a portrait photographer, I am grateful for Wondemu’s contribution to the portrait photography community. Her work is needed within this space, and I look forward to witnessing what she decides to take on next. Modern Muse closed on June 25, 2022, but you can view the series on Wondemu’s website: simplyred8.com.

A photo of a few portraits within the Modern Muse series.

Dorsey is a curator and portrait photographer from Washington, DC. She is also a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Arts Administration MA program in NYC. Her work, including what once was—a black & white photography series covering gentrification in DC—and Where We’re From—a colorful, visual story of Chinese carry-outs—focuses on dismantling preconceived notions regarding the presence of Black bodies in changing spaces that were originally shaped by and for them.

Ultimately, Dorsey aims to protect these spaces through her work, prompting a call to action for more diverse preservation practices that are inclusive of local Black cultures.

ARTECHOUSE What to see: Ase: Afro Frequencies Description: An audiovisual exhibition that celebrates the Black experience with visuals by artist Vince Fraser and poetry by Ursula Rucker.

Dates on View: June 11 – August 31, 2022 Admission: Regular admission is $25, but special rates are available online.

Black Artist Research Space at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library What to see: All Together Description: A convening of contemporary Black women artists in collaboration with the DC Public Library.

Programming will also be presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage.

Dates on View: June 15 – August 28, 2022 Admission: Free National Gallery of Art What to see: Afro Atlantic Histories Description: An exhibition of over 100 works that depict stories from the African Diaspora and the complexities that accompany them.

Dates on View: April 10 – July 17, 2022 Admission: Free National Museum of African American History and Culture What to see: Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.

Description: A close look at the ways in which art has consistently provided perspective, commentary, and escape for African Americans.

Dates on View: September 10, 2021 – ongoing Admission: Free

Maryland Glenstone Museum What to see: Village Series, 2021 Description: An over seven-feet-tall sculpture by renowned sculptor Simone Leigh.

Dates on View: February 24, 2022 – early 2023 Admission: Admission into the museum is free, but you must book museum entry passes in advance.

12 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

art

people too. When I see somebody come to the space and they’re blown away by the fields or somebody leaves one of our events or our programming, or people have their first solo exhibition; it’s just like the feels that they have, it inspires me to keep doing what I’m doing, even though we’re fighting all these unfair things or the things that are really hard being a one woman band. I definitely get inspired and motivated to keep doing what I’m doing because clearly I’m doing something right.

r summeide arts gu

Keyonna Jones knows the Soufside has something to say in the Arts.

Speaking of gentrification, you being a native of the city then having an art space on this side, how have you seen things change within Southeast in the last 10 years?

The DC Native has worked on Murals such as Black Lives Matter Plaza, but her true goal to reshape the art community in the forgotten part of DC NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR The Southside of DC, affectionately referred to by many as Soufside, is often misunderstood. Many think of the violence that takes place in Wards 7 and 8, and the discrepancies in the amount of grocery stores and hospitals this area has in comparison to other parts of the city.

While many attribute negative connotations to the Soufside, many see it as home to some of the most personable and resilient people you will ever meet.

They see a place where the talent is unlimited in terms of sports, art, music, food and much more.

Keyonna Jones has long been one of the people who has seen the potential for the Soufside. Jones is a creative in all facets of the term. She is the executive director of the Congress Height Arts and Culture Center, and touts herself as a one woman band who will get whatever needs to be done to advance the space of art within her part of the city. Keyonna has pushed initiatives forward such as SoufsideCreates, and since 2015, the CHACC has been a creative hub that artists can have exhibitions at, small businesses can vend, and people of all ages are exposed to new ways of interacting with their artistry.

In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic and racial justice protests within DC, Keyonna was approached with a tall task.

She and other artists in the city were approached by the Mayor to paint the yellow Black Lives Matter mural, located now at what is known as Black Lives Matter plaza in downtown DC. When Keyonna was recognized as one of the lead artists, and pulled from anonymity, she used the press she was receiving as an opportunity to continue her mission, push forward the creative arts space in southeast DC. I visited Keyonna at the Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center on MLK Ave in SE, to pick her brain on the past few years, and her mission of making art accessible in Southeast DC. Here is an excerpt from our conversation: Who are you, how would you describe yourself and what you do?

I am Keyonna Jones. I’m the founder and executive director of Congress Heights Arts and Culture Center. I’m a full-time artist as well, and a mother of two, born and raised Southside.

Dee Dwyer’s Chocolate City Experience at CHACC-Southeast, DC. Tell me about what the center offers to people and your role here.

So the center is a safe hub. Like literally we have been named under Mayor Bowser as a safe place here east of the river, but we’re a multitude of things. We’re an art gallery first and foremost that supports black and brown artists. We offer programs and workshops of all kinds, health and wellness, art included. We collaborate with other nonprofits that have great programming but need space. Then we triple as rental space for small businesses, artist studios, and for the community.

As a nonprofit do you face many challenges or issues with funding or going from month to month? Can you speak to that a little bit?

Absolutely. So one, just being an art gallery and a nonprofit in Southeast is hard, right? Being in Southeast as people know, we have been historically left behind, historically forgotten about, historically underserved and underprivileged.

So everything over here is a struggle.

Getting funding is very hard, being a one woman band and having to manage all the things that is here and adding grant writing to my hat is hard, but thankfully we have a Mayor that understands the value and power of art and has a lot of different support and resources that can help artists and art spaces like ourselves.

We have the DC Commission of Art and Humanities that is our bread and butter of how we are able to program and move.

We just do our best. The work that we are here for is more about healing through art. Not just the whole art expression, but also teaching economic stability through art, demystifying that whole thought process of a starving artist. So I think with that passion and that mission in mind, we just keep doing the best that we can, with what we have.

Seems like you’re very passionate about this place and art in DC. How important is it to you to be cultivating an art space in Southeast?

It means everything to me honestly, and I think, just now we opened our doors in 2015, but I think I’m just now really understanding the gratitude of how much we’ve done and how much we’ve changed the neighborhood and the appreciation of art.

For me it’s real personal. Like I said, I was born and raised in Southeast. I was raised in this area and I tell people all the time, I kind of grew up as a weirdo because there was nothing over here that nurtured the spirit of a creative, like nothing when I was young. So I was fortunate enough to leave east of the river and be able to go to the other side of the city, and went to private schools where they had art classes and art resources and saw it there, and grew up as an art kid.

But as I went through life, kind of just got removed from it. So until 2015, it was never a thought for me to create an art gallery ever. I was going to be a journalist and mind my business, but when I came back home...I tell people this all the time as well, the center self manifested itself, it was what I needed and what the community needed, period. One, for the creatives and the other weirdos that were growing up with no creative spirit to be nurtured.

And then two, just for what we deal with in the hood, we need a way to express and to release, right? For the things that we see in the hood, we needed art to beautify our neighborhoods and to make us feel better about what’s going on here.

And then finally, we needed a space for makers and small businesses to be able to push who they are and what they are. So now being able to do all of that and then some, as development comes and we’re fighting against gentrification, we’ve gotten big partnerships with the people that are coming in our neighborhood and able to safely keep our narrative going and it be from us. So honestly, I’m really proud of myself. It’s really an honor to be a tangible example and reflection of what can be and what can come out of Southeast because people just don’t believe it’s possible and I’m sitting right in front of you.

You just talked a lot about how you can see that this area needed a space for

Photo Credit: Florian Kroker people to have a creative outlet to be expressive, to give them different options or expose people to different things. You talked about your experience of how you had to go across town to get certain things regarding art. With your work so far, how has the connections you’ve made with artists changed your outlook on the art scene here? Has that inspired you anymore?

It definitely inspired me, because like I said before, I had completely got away from art and I was just doing journalism, and then after I left the radio station I was working part-time with my dad doing property management, and that’s kind of how this space came about. My father actually used to live in this house. My siblings grew up in this house. My father changed it into a business space for himself, and then let me transform it in 2015.

So this is a personal space.

Yeah this is very personal and I think again, it speaks to, we’re also a reflection of legacy, and what it means to keep property, own property, and be able to transform it over and over again and evolve with the times and be able to reap the benefits. Like I said before, kind of fight against the negative spaces of what gentrification can bring. But when I opened the doors, it was literally about all the things that I said and supporting black and brown artists. And at that point, I had completely forgot about the fact that I was an artist, because I was so deeply removed from it. I mean decades of not doing anything with art, but helping all the other artists and teaching them things, it brought me back to my art.

It brought me back to full time artistry.

Now I’m doing tattoos and I’m doing my own murals and graphic designing and connecting with the same artists that I supported before. Now I’m in the streets with them. So definitely an inspiration in that way, just getting back to my personal artistry. Definitely inspired by other artists and collaborating with them. I guess I’m inspired by creating inspiration for other

I’m fortunate to have all these perspectives. Being a native, being an artist, being east of the river. But I also have the perspective of being the daughter of a man whose been very influential in the city, my father, Mr. Phinas Jones. My parents met in the council and I was born in 88, so basically I’m a council baby. I grew up around Marion Barry being my uncle. Mrs. Barry is my godmother, and just around big city legends that are no longer here. So one, seeing all the things that they were fighting for growing up and hearing my dad’s meetings and hearing what Marion was fighting for and now kind of seeing it be reality. But the other thing that you also see is the things that were being missed in those speeches about telling people that all this development would come at some point, and to start owning some things, starting to get ownership.

So it’s unfortunate to see a lot of people that have been here for years and can’t afford to be here or have been displaced for whatever reasons. But it’s also on the other side, there’s duality and everything, good and bad, light and dark. There’s good things that have come from gentrification, which is the new development that comes here. And the people that did listen to all that advice or did have ownership, we get to sit here and reap those benefits or partner with those benefits. An example of that is right down in St. Eve’s a couple blocks away from the entertainment sports arena where the Mystics practice.

And we got Washington Go-Go games down here. Now they’re building housing and parcel 15 and food and hospitals and all types of stuff. It takes time. So we have to be patient, but now it’s finally coming around and it’s cool to see. We got restaurants, we got Busboys Anacostia, we got different eateries. We’re known to be a food desert so it’s important for these developments to happen, but it’s up to us to be able to be here to reap the benefits.

So it’s just been interesting to watch things move.

Talking about growing up being around council members and influential people from DC, do you feel an obligation to continue to serve the community?

Do I feel an obligation? I think it’s just really in me, I was having this conversation with somebody else the other day because I have siblings. I have a brother that literally has my father’s name and they’re older. So they were around the same things, if not longer. But it’s just about drive. Everybody has a different drive. Everybody has a different mission.

Everybody has a different intention. I don’t think I ever felt I had an obligation to do what I’m doing, it was just in me. I cannot help it. Sometimes I wish I could. I say all the time I wish I was just a regular old person that had 9 to 5, mind my business ,go to happy hour afterwards, got a weekend and I do my thing, but that’s just not how I’m set up.

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 13 I’ve gotten a little bit better in terms of balance and boundaries with myself, because it can be very stressful. It can be very emotionally painful. I’m an impath, so I’m very energy sensitive.

Talk about your artistry a little bit. What mediums do you like to use for your art?

I’m a tattoo artist. I do large scale murals in the city now. I get on canvas a little bit.

If I’m on canvas, I prefer acrylic markers. If I’m gonna use acrylic paint, then I need to be going wide scale. Digital art, definitely. I am a published fashion stylist, so I definitely love working with fashion. I also do photography. I sew a little bit. Literally wherever spirit leads me, I’m going to try it.

That is usually how it is for creatives.

Art has really been my saving grace.

Just in transparency, probably about two or three years ago, I fell into one of the darkest spaces of my life. It was literally just my kids, my art and my therapist, is what saved me. And so I see art as a complete healing tool. It’s like a universal language. You can look at art anywhere, everywhere and it’s something that you can understand in your own right. Also it’s just a catalyst for stronger conversations.

Two people can look at a piece and see all sorts of things. So it’s just my life. That’s what I do.

You talked about how art can be a catalyst for conversation, can invoke and inspire thought. I would say DC has a very unique art landscape across the city in terms of the murals you’ll see on certain walls, the sculptures, and how they kind of reach out to different artists within communities to work on these different types of projects. How do you think art ties into DC’s identity?

It’s really important. Some of the art that you see, especially if it’s in a historic place, is telling you about the history of that place. Especially the sculptures and the parks that have murals...the figures that they’re putting in, it’s telling you about the history of DC. That’s why I think it’s really important, especially for black artists and black natives to be a part of that process, to be able to control the narrative and make it real. But then also there’s this space, especially because I’m in that space with doing murals... there’s politics tied to everything in the city. So sometimes it’s really hard to get around those things or the things that they want you to do. But also DC is a hype beast city too, which is really annoying if you are not popular, right?

Explain that a little bit more.

Hype beast for me is like... people get hyped behind you, and then there’s just a beast that pushes it, and pushes you and pushes your brand. And if you are popular it’s no problem. All you gotta do is say one thing and then people are going to show up right? But if you’re not in that lane, or you’re not popular, it is really hard to get some traction here. Then you keep seeing the same artists, you keep seeing the same thing. I think I struggled for a long time because I wasn’t part of the hype beast. My name wasn’t popular. The only reason why now my name is getting popular is because I help paint the Black Lives Matter Mural down at the white house.

With that, I was able to get a lot of traction and really leverage it. If you talking about me, you’re going to talk about the center. So now it’s like, “oh, you got an art gallery in Southeast?’ And then all you gotta do is walk in this space and

you’re gonna feel it. So it’s just like, it’s unfortunate because we have vast talent here, like crazy talent. But again, with the politics, you know the right people, you know the right names, they going to push you up. And then those people, if you’re not connected, you struggle a little bit or never get seen. So I think if anything, when you was asking me about an obligation, that’s my obligation, to push the black and brown artists of DC, specifically Southeast.

To push them and let them be seen.

That’s where I am. There’s a lot of gigs that I could take, but I’m not doing that.

Because I know there’s a lot of other things that’s for me. I tell people all the time,what’s for me won’t miss me and what’s not for me won’t catch me. The more that I give, I got to be ready to receive because my hands are open because I’m steady giving. So that means something’s going to come back to me.

So now I’m putting other artists on. Other artists that I know are professional and they can show up and do their thing. Now I’m giving them gigs so that they can be seen and they can start getting on the map of this stuff because it’s just not fair for the same people to just get the opportunities over and over again. That’s weak.

That sucks.

way, I can be in those rooms and those conversations. I can hold my anger, I can check somebody when they are saying stuff. I’m just capable to represent here, so I love it. It’s basically like I’m a council member, but not, because I would never do that!

Ten years from now, where do you see the center and how do you see art developing in Southeast?

By 10 years the center will definitely have its own artist housing. Like we will have our own building. I’m thinking of probably six units that will house artists to live and make their art in, and then we’ll funnel them back in here so they can do their exhibitions and their programming workshops. We’ll have more space. Ten years we should have two buildings with artist housing honestly and everything filtering and into here.

As far as art on the south side, it’s going to be everywhere. It’s going to be murals.

It’s going to be sculptures. I’m talking about metal sculptures, bronze sculptures...We’re planning on putting a wooden sculpture out here from a tree bark. You’re going to see all types of art. You’re going to see stuff hanging off people’s gates.

You’re going to see some of our biggest figures on corners as statues and so on.

The schools are going to be covered with murals inside and out.

There’s going to be public art. There’s going to be art back in schools, probably full time.There’s going to be retail spaces where you’re going to see local makers and local brands popping. We’re going to have more professional artists, more artists that know what a W-9 is. It’s going to look real pretty. It’s going to be bright. It’s going to feel good. It’s going to be good.

So it seems like that perspective ties into here and opening your space to different artists.

Yeah because I can give you opportunities.

And we do things where I can give several people opportunities. Like Art All Night here is wild. I have probably over 200 artists that we support just out of here only. Then it’s thousands of artists on the corridor that we bring. And if you look at our mission, that’s it, to expose, inspire, educate, and heal all through art.

You mentioned the Black Lives Matter mural and how you got a lot of press surrounding that. Talk to me about art’s connection to activism within the city. It seems like that’s something eventually artists can’t really avoid. I mean, I’m sure they can choose to, but I see a connection between artwork and political messaging or statements.

So that was a crazy experience and I actually really couldn’t help it because I was out there in my own brand and my gear, and somebody saw me on TV and that was the only reason why I got pulled out of anonymity. Everybody else decided to remain anonymous. I was still deciding whether I was going to be anonymous or not. But once I went out there, I was wearing my brand and people saw me and were like, “yeah, we just seen you on TV.” So that’s kind of how that popped out, I couldn’t really go back once that happened.

But it was also really important because... when you talk about activism, it was really important for black people all over the world to see that there was another black woman out there doing that, for queer people to know that there was a black woman out there doing that.

Representation is just important, period.

And for that to be such a big thing at the time during protest, when Trump was acting crazy, when the mayor was fighting with Trump, that was something serious. People ask me all the time, do you consider yourself an activist? I would never put that on myself, ever. Now does my art do activism? Absolutely. I think all art does activism. Like we said before, it starts a bigger conversation. Art just does that by itself, especially if you going to be public with it. If you’re going to be outside painting, you are doing activism work,

Top: Art All Night at CHACC. Bottom: Dee Dwyer’s Chocolate City Experience at CHACC-Southeast, DC. period. And I don’t know if you want to call yourself an activist or not, but that is the work of activism. That day really affirmed and confirmed for me the power of art.

Literally 24 hours later, you saw that thing being replicated around the world And so it was just like that it is a domino effect and I think it just speaks for itself. It became replicated around the world and it started conversations around the world that everybody was dealing with this one thing, which is the fact that black lives matter and people need to respect them, especially the police. It was just amazing to be a part of that.

During that time everyone was in the house. It seemed like everything was so magnified and as you say, that piece of artwork traveled throughout the country, people were doing replicas of it.

There was a lot of support, but with that comes drawback and criticism as well.

What did you see on that end, and what was your perspective on it?

So I’m not a politics girl, even though I’m a council baby and I understand politics and I grew up around council members.

Politics is not my thing. I just understand politics and I know how to leverage politics. But I always show up as myself, which is an artist, and I call myself a healing teacher in the sense that I’m healing to teach, and I’m teaching a heal. All of that is through art, so I showed up for the art part, you know what I’m saying? That was my job. I feel like everybody has a role in this world. Some people got to make phone calls. Some people got to make sandwiches. Some people got to make art,

and that’s me. And it was conversations afterwards where people was just like, this is performative. Just because you painted black lives matter on the street, that doesn’t mean anything, what else? We need you to defund the police...

What did you think of the Defund the Police addition people added to the mural?

That same night...and I know a whole bunch of people that did that.They came out there and added the defund police part, and people were calling me and sending me pics saying you see what they did to your stuff? And I was just like they didn’t do nothing to my stuff. They left it there, and then they put up their sign beside it, and I thought it was very creative.

And if we’re allowed to do that, why can’t they do that? Again, it sparks another conversation right? It creates more conversations and its public art, that is exactly the point of public art. So I absolutely loved it.

And like I said, it started more conversations that needed to be had, so I love it.

So what would you say is the most fulfilling aspect of your work here at the center?

Just seeing people feeling good off of being black, feeling good off their own culture. Raising southside, showing people that there’s a high caliber in southside.

I think that’s just really my favorite part, how we represent Southeast. We just lit as hell. And I think just representing Southeast, that’s an honor for me, because I’ve been to a lot of places. And I can hold my own and represent Southeast the right

Throughout this you’ve spoken on facing certain hurdles or obstacles. When you face that adversity, what keeps you going?

It just ain’t no damn way I’m going to stop.

I started 2015, I’ve been doing this thing by myself since then and made it through a pandemic. And I mean, we made it through a pandemic without opening our doors, but we were able to renovate, we came out of the pandemic better than we went into the pandemic. And just what I know we’ve been able to do in this time so far. The things that people have said to me, people have gotten emotional with me as well talking about how much they love this space. The other nonprofits that we work with and the programming that we bring in here. The mothers that we touch, the kids that we touch, the elders that we touch. I say we work with people from ages 5 to 105 just because that’s how universal art is. It’s for everybody. Just the fact that I was a kid and didn’t have something like the center here. It’s imperative now that we’re here, there’s no way that we cannot be here.

What do you love most about DC? And it could be Southeast specific.

It is definitely Southeast. T Cloud from Mystics, I was on her live and she kept on saying she loves being an underdog.

She loves the fact that people count her out. And I think that’s a part of it. I love soufside, that’s why I created the brand Soufside Creative. Our tagline is, we are a different kind of creative. I think that’s why people feel the way they feel about us. That’s why they have the fear, because we’re just so different, we’re unknown.

And when you go anywhere, any soufside, it could be soufside Detroit, soufside Chicago, any soufside, you going to know you in soufside and you got people repping it.

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“WE MIGHT LOSE THE GAME BUT WE’RE WINNING THE FIGHT ”

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THE NEW RESIDENTS OF DC MET THE RESIDENTS OF OLD DC AS BULLETS CAUSED CLUBHOUSES

AND BLEACHERS TO CLEAR. THE GUNS BROUGHT IN BY “AGENT ZERO” REAPPEARED ONE WARM AND FATEFUL NIGHT.

MAYBE THE DRUGS THE COMMANDERS BROUGHT TO FED-EX FIELD WENT MISSING. OR THE LAUNDERED MONEY THAT SILENCED THOSE WHO

WERE ASKED TO CHEER, DISAPPEARED. IT MAY BE UNCLEAR THE REASON OR REASONS THOSE

SHOTS FLEW THAT NIGHT, BUT ONE THING FOR SURE IS CLEAR. THOSE WHO MIGHT HAVE WON RESI-

DENCE AND A 771-AREA CODE STILL HAVE TO FACE THE FIGHT IN THE PARKING LOT THAT THEY THEM-

SELVES CREATED. HERE ARE THE- HIGHLIGHTS OF BOTH THE GAME AND THE PARKING LOT…

- JUSTIN JOHNSON

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NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR

In Conversation with Yaddiya: Three years of Moechella, D.C. vs.

GoGo, and the future of the Genre moving forward.

“If you have a black-tie event, you don’t have any problem. But if you bring go-go in, you’re going to have problems.”

This quote from 2005 was stated by retired DC Police Commander Larry McCoy. It captures the sentiment that many police officers and some government officials had toward DC’s native genre.

In the early 2010’s gogo stood on its last leg as a cultural giant within the city, as many venues were shut down or reported, citing either violence or loud noise complaints from new neighbors.

Many bands were often surveilled by police, and in 2010, MPD’s GoGo report was discovered, where officers passed around a list of weekly shows and performances, in the hopes of “intervening in violence” In 2010 Former Prince George’s County Police chief referenced TCB gogo shows as , “violence masqueraded as entertainment”.

Ten years later, on February 19th 2020, DC Mayor Muriel Bower signed a bill into law that designated GoGo Music as the official music of DC. This heelturn of the city’s acceptance of gogo has a lot to do with the work of Justin “Yaddiya’’ Johnson, and the mobile gogo movement he founded with Moechella. If you have been in DC the past 3 years, it would be very hard for you to not be familiar with the gogo event that often doubles as a form of protest. In 2019 Yaddiya put together years of experience in the gogo circuit and organizing protest against actions of the federal government during the Trump administration, to respond to a local incident involving gogo.

The moment is pretty well known and infamous by now. A white newcomer to DC made a complaint about the gogo music being played out of the Metro PCS store on the corner of 7th and Florida Ave, a tradition that is beloved my DC residents.

When the store stopped playing the music, this hit the nerve of Natives across the city, who were already dealing with the circumatsnces of gentrification in many other ways, now it was extending to the music!? The DOnt Mute DC Movement began and the gogo event of all gogo events was created, Moechella.

Yaddiya and Moechella celebrated their three year anniversary on May 21st, 2022 with a concert at the Howard Theater featuring special guests, TCB, New Impressionz, Comedian and DC mayoral

The Art of GoGo

candidate Red Grant, DJ and EAT Founder AllHomage, DJ NahFr, and many more.

I caught up with Yaddiya a few weeks before the event, in the midst of his promotion run. We sat on Wisconsin Ave near the National Zoo. Here us an excerpt from our conversation: So you talked about entering the Gogo circuit, and live music at a certain time.

How is the market of Gogo different now versus when you first started getting into it?

The market of Gogo is different now because I think when I was coming up and starting to move around in Gogo, it seemed to be way more popular and way more prevalent in the area. I started when I was 18, 19 years old. At that time, that’s where a lot of people went to parties every weekend, they went to Gogo spots. Gogo was just super popular. Like I always tell people, I came up in the time in Gogo where you could have Backyard Band next to Jay-Z and people would prefer to go see the Backyard Band. And that’s the Gogo I know. Endless shows being organized, everyone wanting to start their own Gogo band. There was an abundance of Gogo bands. You had shows like the CFE 20 for 20 things like that.

People didn’t want to be rappers. They wanted to be in a Gogo band.

Exactly. That’s why I say rap is the new Gogo, because back then Gogo was the thing. Just like how everyone want’s rap now, that’s how Gogo was.

So it’s definitely different in that way, and that was of course before the emergence of social media, which I think changed a lot of the way people look at their indigenous culture. Back then, when I got into Gogo, people was still wearing urban wear. Certain people were still wearing staples of the culture heavily way more than I see now. So I just think the appreciation behind the culture was just more amplified you know? The culture was more appreciated. And not only was it appreciated, we were actually in the middle of it. We were actually in the center of the culture, actually a part of it, not just appreciating it, we were a part of it. We were creating it. That was the difference.

You just talked about how important Gogo was to culture years back, but now, I feel like the city as far as government reps and police, they’re a lot more accepting of Gogo now versus back then. What do you think about that?

Yaddiya looks on into the crowd during one of his Moechella events in 2020.

I mean, I wouldn’t be able to say that I was involved in certain city politics or had the knowledge of the sentiments of the people in this city as much as I do now.

So I wouldn’t be able to say that oh they didn’t appreciate it or they did. I do know that when I was coming up throwing Gogos, they were starting to push Gogo out of the city. So there weren’t many clubs where you could even go to the Gogo in the city anymore. You had to go out to Maryland. Like they wouldn’t even allow certain bands like TCB to play. TCB, would’ve never been at the Howard Theater. Like we got them now in a couple weeks, but back then?

Now they appreciate it more with the creation of Moechella, with the formation of the movement Don’t Mute DC, the organization of the movement Long Live Gogo, things like that. They’ve also seen the way Gogo has sort of been politicized and used to shed light on a lot of the policies that are being passed and a lot of the commentary that’s being talked about in the community. So it’s been utilized as a tool as of late. I feel that it has not just gotten the attention of natives and the newcomers, but from the people in city politics as well.

So you just talked about the intersection of politics and Gogo. How it’s kind of used to shed light on these different issues. When did you first see that connection? Was it just with putting together Moechella and the Don’t Mute DC movement or did you always see it?

My first protest was in 2018 where I used Gogo against the amplified noise amendment and that kind of gave me the inspiration behind using music to

draw attention, to garner an audience and mobilize people essentially. Not even mobilize people, but just more so create that energy. I always knew Gogo creates a certain energy, especially when people are together in one place and really celebrating it. Shortly after that protest against the amplified noise amendment, I led a protest in front of the white house against the not the current regime, but against the corruption and policies at the time (Donald Trump Administration). And I led the protest for a hundred and eighty five nights and I used musicians every night to basically activate the protest.

That was the program.

I’m essentially the front man and I do the commentary et cetera, and the engagement and all those things with the crowd.

So that is where I saw how music brought people together and how Gogo music was encouraging people to protest and how people were using these methods to be able to uplift their voice. And I saw how music brought people together. So that gave me even more of an inspiration to use entertainment, to raise political awareness and promote political engagement and voting and all these things.

All the things that our community has stopped doing that people and politicians take advantage of.

We don’t participate in the political process. We don’t have faith in it, and we don’t feel like the government works for us so we have lost faith in the system. So we don’t even participate, all the while it’s still policy being pushed. It’s still people that are moving the needle, and moving the country [forward] and we not even paying attention. So I felt we got to use entertainment, something that people love to get them motivated. We are the culture. So we got more of the knowledge of how to garner our audience, who to

GoGo music not only provides the sound of the city, it plays a huge role in DC’s world of art. Iconic posters with vibrant colorways were commonplace during the golden era of the genre. Now gogo inspires murals, paintings and much more.

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 17 include, what to make things look like and all that type of stuff. So that really gave me inspiration. When EZ Street told me about the situation with the store on seventh and Florida, I knew a lot of people from the city knew me from my activism, so I was like there’s no way I could speak out against what’s going on in federal politics and not speak out against something that’s an attack on the culture, specifically Gogo, which is the community I come from.

So That was a no-brainer.

It was a no-brainer and then just using Gogo music and my knowledge of the city and just me knowing U street’s a popular intersection and all these types of things, people knowing me, etc. It just created that moment, that’s just how it all came about for real.

That was like a huge moment in the city.

Like so many people outside of the city covered those initial protests. And you could see aerial shots of a whole block of U street literally listening to Gogo.

How surreal was that moment? Did you see it reaching out like that to the masses when you first organized it?

Well, the first one I organized with TOB was pretty big. It was kind of going viral as far as the promotion, when people like Wale, people from the area that got influence were showing their support for it. So it kind of created a spark. And from there, I knew how it is with things in the community, whether it be a food drive, a giveaway or whatever , it’s always like one day out of the year or one day once every half of the year. I’m like how we going to create momentum or do it for the city if we just do it once and that’s it. We gotta keep it going. So every other week I would do it on Tuesdays. They were always on Tuesdays every other week.

And every other week it would just get bigger and bigger. And after each one, I would definitely feel that adrenaline rush and just that energy, just like you know when you inside of a moment, it’s so intense you don’t notice what’s going on and then afterwards when you see all the footage and all the clips and all the stuff on social media, it’s a little bit overwhelming. So the second one, I was starting to get that vibe, like damn, like couldn’t sleep reall the same night cause I’m just still thinking about it. Cause I’m literally in the middle of it all, and I’m like damn this is crazy.

Yeah. And since then you talked about being creative and having these outlets.

Since then you’ve done a book, you’ve done clothes. I’ve seen artwork and posters on the streets...

Endless.

Moechella 3 Year Anniversary show at the Howard Theater on May 21st 2022.** My bad All good, we can pick up.

I was saying, since then you’ve done a book. Clothes. There’s so many creative outlets. What inspires you to venture into those fields like poster artwork?

You literally just ordered some posters when we were talking?

I’m overall a creative person, so I always think of different ideas. I always watch what’s going on. I also have a lot of different interests, so I always look at how I can create certain partnerships and create certain products that embody how I feel or will represent some of my interests. I feel like that’s only natural. So everything I do, I want to at least have a passion for it. I never just want to sell something just because I feel like it’ll make me money. Whatever I do. I wanna make sure that it’s a part of me and that I enjoy doing it. You got to diversify the brand, diversify the revenue streams and all those things. That’s what’s going to ensure that I can continue to do what I’m doing.

See the thing is bro, when people do this, I don’t look at it like it’s for me, I look at it like it’s for the city. So it’s like, I’m just the person that God is working through. I’m just the person that’s like, I don’t know if it’s the purveyor, but I’m just the catalyst, you know what I mean? So I feel like when people say they want to be a part of it, that’s dope as shit. At the end of the day, I’m always just thinking about how I could make it bigger. Because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Going to a new level. That’s only gonna happen through bigger partnerships, more support and involving people. That’s always been the vision, to involve people.

What is it like doing something at Howard Theater? Like you said earlier in this interview, the city took away gogo venues to a point where they almost pushed gogo out of the city. So to be able to have gogo performed in the city, especially in a historic place like Howard Theater, what is that like?

I gotcha. **Yaddiya pauses the interview to finish placing a poster order for the upcoming

Speaking of High School you were just at Duke Ellington with a couple bands

Creating……… **Yaddiya’s phone rings** Hold on one second. Hold on one second.

Cause I forgot to do something.

Nah. And that was the only thing growing up, like the girls would actually be dancing to Gogo and that was what you would actually dance with girls to.

So we’re coming up on the three year anniversary of Moechella. And by the time this is out, you would have already had your event at the Howard theater.

You’re collaborating with a bunch of people from the city, like, AllHomage of EAT, DJ NahFR, Red Grant, TOB, and on and on. How do you feel about all of this support so far? You’re three years in and still going

Man, it’s great to be able to have that support. At the same time, it’s also kind of a fruit of my labor, to create that openness, like the Kennedy Center partnership, Howard Theater, all these different venues that allow gogo. At the same time, gogo has been iconic for the city. I just think that I was able to help give it a new spark and continue a new wave. Now I got people like yourself, younger people interested in coming back to Moechella.

High school kids. We need that to be able to keep it going. I feel like I’m representing the new era.

It seems like you’re always figuring out a new creative way, like a new outlet.

What inspires you?

got that pride for the city, man. We was out Utah, whoever in Utah from DC, they coming!

I don’t ever have an expectation as far as the audience. I always like to position that shit to get in front of a new audience. That’s what it’s more about for me.

The people that’s out of town from the city. I look at them like promoters. Cause I’m like, man, y’all need to promote y’all culture and bring y’all men from there, here. It’s lit you feel me? So I’m always wondering how we could expose it to more people. I feel like the live experience is definitely going to sell Gogo to people. And if we could find a way to pitch that live experience. I feel like that shit is definitely going to get more people interested in coming to the Gogo. I feel like Gogo could be one of the best and biggest hard ticket selling fucking draws.

Cause ain’t nothing like a live Gogo, right?

Am I lying? Right or wrong?

A couple dances together during a GoGo set. and there’s videos of the kids interacting with it. Talk to me about that.

It shows that it’s really in the spirit. It’s really in the DNA of the kids in the area.

It’s never going to leave. It’s truly cultural.

These moments truly show you that. So it’s not the fact that people don’t love it.

It’s just that the people in gogo got to do what they need to do to continue to help it evolve. Like we said before, it was a time everybody wanted to be in a band.

You had bands of 14 year old, 15 year old kids. Now it’s not like that. We need more of that. How do we do that? Make it cool again.

Was it initially difficult to find spaces that wanted to host Gogo? And has it been easier since you started?

I mean the way I utilize Gogo is not too much like, oh, I need to book this venue and do this, that and the other. At the same time, I definitely see more of an openness. Like I said, TCB would’ve never been able to play in the Howard Theater in my mind. **We both laugh** Nah, I agree with you.

You know what I’m saying? So I see it.

Five years from now, where do you see Moechella and this movement at?

Man, five years from now I definitely see

Photos by

@A78759

But think about this. Niggas go every week and pay to get in. It’s just the way niggas doing the industry. It’s no real organization. Then it’s not enough fans for it to be unorganized on a national level.

We gotta make more fans.That’s what that shit really about. And I feel a lot of people feel possessive over that shit.

Like, nah, you can’t like this, you know what I mean? They see a white person in there or something and they like, man that’s our shit and its like damn, how the fuck ya’ll think y’all about to get the money if y’all don’t let everybody love it.

Big white folk love Tupac. That nigga didnt say nah, this black people music like. We got to be more open.

it worldwide. Like I see myself being able to garner and create an audience and fanbase independently and I see us being able to tour with Moechella. Just us being the core essentially, kind of what we’ve been building and just surrounding that with other artists, and I feel like we’ll be able to take it worldwide. Partner with other festivals, have a stage at other festivals. Like it’s all about the exposure and the consistency. So we keep doing things like going to LA, doing it, bigger, better partnerships, getting people to come to this. Make some good records. Start really being able to push the records. We need to stop trying to make Gogo mainstream and just make the mainstream love Gogo.

And that’s what I feel like people be missing. They be trying to make Gogo be like rap records. That don’t make sense.

You’re introducing Gogo to a new generation of Washingtonians. And some of that includes people who are new to this city. What do you think about their relationship with Gogo?

You’re taking Gogo to the west coast with some events. What do you think of the reception of Gogo in LA? Cause I know some DC people end up traveling there and the ones that are on that side love to see it come over there.

No matter where you go around the world, you always can notice somebody from DC. It’s just different. You can see the best of the best to the pits of the pit in DC. The culture is definitely unique.

It’s definitely got that spiritual vibe to it, especially the black people here. You’ve never met anything like the black people in DC, I’m telling you, You’ve never met anything like that. So it’s just that special little thing that all people from the area got with them, and you always can notice it. It’s not really something you can explain you know? Even just like the accents, all the slang.The mentality. The give no fucks mentality. That shit is crazy bruh. Like you don’t even notice how people perceive us till you leave from here.

I think the ones on that side, they just love that DC coming to LA, they don’t give a fuck. It could be fucking who the fuck knows, you know what I’m saying? As long as it’s Gogo, I feel like they’re going to give it a shot.Thankfully Moechella just got that name with it. It just got that recognition to where they like, oh Moechella coming? Bet. Moechella’s name is way bigger than mine. So it’s like, that’s tight. That’s saying something. I feel like people just

The new people that I see love it. It’s crazy cause I even got a friend, one day we did something at Union Market. Even she was complaining like, man, it was so loud.

But it’s like, white people really do love it.

This is not even just about white people.

People [in general] love live music.

I feel like everyone loves live music.

When I see people in the street, like when we are on the truck and shit man, they love it. They root for it. I hear people say, “that’s the Gogo truck!”

What do you love most about DC?

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photographs by Cayla Gray

“I never felt so proud to be a DC native than during these moments at Moechella. It’s been hard living in a city surrounded by people who don’t understand or respect who you are and what you love about your city.”

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“Moechella represents who we are and what we love about DC.” -Cayla Gray @caygfoto

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Fade to Grey: Death of Color in D.C.’s Housing Landscape and Gentrification NORBERT KLUSMANN | STAFF WRITER Bike lanes, dog parks, Starbucks, cranes, grey homes. If your neighborhood features three of the aforementioned five things, it is likely in the middle of intense gentrification. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, seven cities accounted for nearly half of the gentrification nationally: New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Diego and Chicago.

Even worse, Washington, D.C., was the most gentrified city by percentage of eligible neighborhoods that experienced gentrification. A city previously defined by its vibrant black residents, black culture, colored homes and/or exposed brick row homes, is now hardly familiar to those who have lived here the longest. The color is being removed from Chocolate City and the look of its homes is reflecting that as well.

Gentrification Stats in D.C. (last 20+ years)

There is a housing crisis in the United States. Even deeper, how appropriate is it that it’s capital, Washington, D.C., acts as a true microcosm of this issue and the most impacted group are black Washingtonians. According to Housing Matters, an initiative through the Urban Institute, between 2000 and 2010, more than 20,000 Black residents in DC were displaced and, in the past five years,

2002: Under Mayor Anthony Williams, the prospect of bringing a streetcar to DC begins being studied 2009: There is suggestive evidence from the Census. D.C.’s black population declined by nearly 6,000 from 2006 to 2008 while the white population increased by roughly 22,000.

2009: Mayor Adrian Fenty led a polarizing push for bike lanes, including the District’s first against-the-traffic, protected lane on 15th Street NW. 2011: Washington’s black population slipped below 50 percent this year, possibly in February, about 51 years after it gained a majority, according to an estimate by William Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution.

2013: About 40 percent of the District’s lower-income neighborhoods experienced gentrification between 2000 and 2013, giving the city the greatest “intensity of gentrification” of any in the country, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

2013: Walmart opens its first location in NW DC on Georgia Avenue. The location hired approximately 300 associates for the store, and was followed up with more locations throughout the years.

History of Colored Housing in Communities of Color

Colored homes have defined some of America’s preeminent black communities for years: Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, New Orleans, LA, and more! Either that or beautiful exposed brick homes - Chocolate City was no different. For decades, these are the facades that the cities most scenic neighborhoods have embraced.

Have you ever wondered where this preference comes from? For many Southern locales and those black populations originating from there, this comes straight from either the Carribean or Africa. Fabu Phillips Carter, in an article entitled ‘The stunning colors of black culture’, broke down how color carries meaning: “gold represents status and serenity. Yellow symbolizes fertility and vitality. Green signifies prosperity, the renewal and growth seen in plants and the cycle of birth and decay. Blue represents the presence of God and the omnipotence of the blue sky. Blue also refers to a pure spirit that rests in harmony. Red connotes passion of political determination, struggle and defense.” Coloring your home inherently imbues it with a particular energy and is a proof point in the continued evolution of African cultures in America. Chocolate City is a perfect example of this. However, the onslaught of grey homes in an anti-thesis to this.

Chocolate City Timeline: The Path to Gentrification in Washington, DC

New housing developments on 12th of Northeast DC show the dynamic constrast in design styles between the old and the new.

2018: The District approved $300 million in public subsidies for the Wharf project, including public land and cash subsidies through DC’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and PILOT economic development subsidy programs.

2018:The D.C. Council on Tuesday tentatively agreed to subsidize infrastructure upgrades and additional parking in the Union Market district, backing a request from private landowners who say the overall area will only meet its potential if the power stays on and access is guaranteed to all.

The bill, which will require a second reading and vote, provides for up to $82.4 million in tax-increment financing, of which $46.4 million would fund infrastructure improvements and $36 million would fund “retail parking pools” throughout Union Market.

2019: The Barry Farm Dwellings housing complex in Southeast Washington, DC, was demolished to make way for a new development. The buildings were the last remnants of Barry Farm–Hillsdale, a vibrant African American community dating back to the Civil War. 2020: D.C.’s Black Residents Make Up Less Than Half The Population, 80% Of COVID-19 Deaths 2021: The latest figures show that D.C. residents who identify as White, alone or in combination, now outnumber those who identify at least partly as Black.

While every other ethnic group increased in number between 2010 and 2020, the Black population actually fell by almost 10,000.

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 21 16 percent of DC neighborhoods with lower property values and lower-income residents gentrified, making it one of the top 15 most intensely gentrified cities in the US. This trends have only been more recently exacerbated by the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic (public health crises historically disproportionately affect communities of color), as well as the unprecedented economic downturn we’re currently facing. Times are hard for all, but undoubtedly hardest on us.

While gentrification is often seen as a housing issue first and foremost, its catalysts and impact can be seen in a variety of other facets of policy and life. In Dr. Sabiyha Prince’s local view assessment for Washington, D.C. through the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, she spotlighted the strategy of “thwart(ing) access to convenience for low-income residents, creating additional errands and expenses for the heads of households in the gaps left by the loss of neighbors and social networks.” This manifests itself as an act of war, blockading, so to speak, black neighborhoods and pairing this significant drop off of resources, community and more with a bombardment of purchase offers for these homes. It can often times feel like a hopeless situations.

Chocolate City has been under attack for decades.

Greying of our communities: precedent for using ‘grey’ in house flipping

New housing in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington DC. Developments show a huge contrast in designs, making new units stick out sorely.

D.C. isn’t the only major city experiencing a rise in ‘Gentrification Grey’. San Francisco, a city that has battled rising cost of living and gentrification at rates similar to Washington D.C., also has a history of homes colored beautiful pastels - it is rightfully considered a defining marker of many of their communities of colors. Dr. Color, a.k.a. Bob Buckter, has consulted on nearly 18,500 historical buildings in the Bay Area and, in an article with The Guardian, shared that he ”think(s) the main reason is a trend toward simplicity and being modern. They’re tired of the polychrome look, some of these people.

This trend has been noticed by other people and some people are just going on the wave of that trend.” I think this statement touches on a key point: for most gentrifiers and developers, a move towards modernity and the future of these communities of color includes erasing any preexisting culture and history. Their grey acts as the ultimate visual blank slate.

Furthermore, many gentrifiers, house flippers, and developers are painting formerly colored or exposed brick rowhouses grey as quick and cost effective ways of hiding structural issues, old brick and more on home nearly a century old, at this point. In a 2015 article by the Washington City Paper spotlighting this issue, a number of realtors, home improvers and interior designers chimed in and continued to uplift a single point about the color: “unoffensive”. In a city where, the voices, priorities and culture of Natives is constantly muted and relegated to certain spaces for the sake of what new residents considered acceptable or are comfortable with, it is not a shock that the goal of grey is to distance these homes from the existing culture of the neighborhoods they exist in. Amanda Kolson Hurley, the author of the article, tied it up perfectly with this statement: “A timid, wishy-washy, bipartisan color: Gray seems like it was destined for D.C., at least for the D.C. that exists in the minds of New York Times writers.”

22 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

activism

Ty Hobson-Powell doesn’t believe in respectability politics

The Washington Native discusses the politics of DC Statehood, activism, and more NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR

reinvestment into public schools or reinvestment into rec centers because we’ve already seen that conventional wisdom says that these are preventative measures. These are the outcomes that keep you from even making it to the block to even be able to shoot the gun or be shot by it. So let’s get the money there before we decide that we wanna have these cops coming out here acting like they’re playing war zone cause they got AR-15s and they got vests and they got tanks. I mean literally, I’ve seen some of the craziest shit. It was almost like we were a foreign occupation the way that I seen regular men and women deployed against us just for using our first amendment rights and saying, hey y’all, shit is fucked up, we want to change it. This is during 2020. And this is at the capital. It’s supposed to be the bastion of democracy. We’re supposed to be that shining city on the hill. So shining that we’re a city and not a state, so exemplary that we just had to be classified like that. You would think some exceptional shit was happening here.

Ty Hobson Powell is one of the dynamic voices in DC advocacy. It’s hard not to be impressed with his resume. Ty finished high school at age 13, graduated college with his bachelor’s degree at age 15, and received his masters at age 17. It would be easy for Ty to be defined by these academic achievements, but his reach and influence go far beyond them. He is an activist that has been critically engaged with all issues relating to the well being of Black people in DC, especially within the last few years.

In 2020, after seeing the frustration of his peers during the many racial justice demonstrations of 2020, Ty co founded Concerned Citizens to help organize the thoughts and voices of DC. Concerned Citizens started with marches, and soon moved into a place of advocacy through mutual aid drives and providing communal resources for residents of DC from turkey drives all the way to feminine care products.

Ty’s advocacy has also crossed over into making sure DC Statehood has a future. He has been a partner with 51 for 51, a group that mobilizes to ensure legislation making DC a state has a future to be passed.

Though Ty Hobson Powell wears many hats, he is one of the most approachable individuals you will ever meet. I met him on the corner of 14th and Crittenden St in uptown DC, right across the street from Highlands. A random bystander probably wouldn’t guess that this 6’1 black dude posted on the corner arguing about how good Luka Doncic has been in the playoffs so far, is one of the leading advocacy voices in DC. But that’s the point. Civil engagement should not be gatekept, or have a certain look.

That premise is what’s kept the average person from feeling like they have a voice that can participate in the larger discussions. The politicians that represent us are not seen as real people who live the same lives as us, or people that we can just walk up to on a random street corner and talk to.

Ty and I talked outside for about an hour. Here is an excerpt from our conversation: One thing I would say about your advocacy, and your approach to your advocacy is you’re not very politically correct about how you approach things, you kind of cut through all of that, That’s it. You gotta meet people where they at man.

Where does that come from?

That shit was always corny to me. Growing up, I had an interest in politics. I had an interest in engaging in all these different forms, but I never felt like it was for me because the terms of art, they were using the default language, the dress code. I was like, I don’t really subscribe to that, but I knew that I had the mental wherewithal to be in those spaces and compete. And so I really just sort of challenged the world to redefine how we let people show up, you know? So part of that is doing things like, I had a lecture at Boston University here in Washington, DC where I wore a ski mask.

Really just shaking up the idea that leadership doesn’t look like a certain thing or a certain background, a certain education history. You can literally be whoever you want to be and still be a leader.

Do you think that hinders people from wanting to participate in discourse?

Absolutely. I think people feel like there are these invisible rules, these sort of parameters that would have to frame them in, or frame them out of a conversation. And it’s like yo, just be yourself. Just show up.

Because at the end of the day, I think that directly impacted people are the people that are best situated to affect change because they know what they wanna see move. They have the lived realities that’s tethered to the talking points. You know Joe Biden’s gonna sit there and wax poetic, but at the end of the day, he’s in the ivory tower, he’s in the white house.

For the most part, these politicians that

Well that’s a going segway into DC statehood. So you you’ve done a lot of advocacy and strategy with 51 for 51. A lot of people describe statehood as a civil rights issue. Do you agree with that notion? If so, elaborate on that.

are enacting the legislation that governs these social issues are so deeply removed from even filling the impact of them, that it’s like, why would you ever be the driving force for this social change? How could you ever feel like it’s truly informed?

What would you say to people who do believe in abolition of certain systems but not the practicality of it. They believe in the principles of it but think you know, white people aren’t gonna let go of certain things.

I think that at the end of the day, there is that thought to have, right? Like okay, if they’ve been holding on power generationally, what the fuck makes you think that they would just disinherit themselves from wealth, the power and all these things that literally keep shit moving on earth. I mean, there’s a hopefulness, right?

And we cannot let finite disappointments undermine infinite hope that exists if we all choose to try to be aligned. So there is the prospect that things could change. Really just staying encouraged because at the end of the day, things can change, things have changed. Maybe not at the rate that we want, but things have changed.

We chip away.

We see that it’s possible. It’s like chip away at it, but don’t chip away at it as though it’s the end all be all. Chip away at it, but as a side project grow your own garden. Chip away at it, but as a side project become gun literate.

I think that we live in two sorts of universes, one that is sort of tethered to the systems that exist, that we live within. But one that is totally imaginative of what this shit would be without it. So when I meet abolitionists and they have this prospect that it’s not realistic, I say look, it’s realistic, but you can’t just be an abolitionist. You have to be an abolitionist plus. And what I mean by that is, if you’re just an abolitionist, you’re only solely focused on the destruction. You’re not focused on the

creation of the system that comes behind this one you just destroyed. And the thing about that is, without intentionality around how you choose to approach abolition you’re just destroying one system and if you’re not intentional about what comes next, another system that doesn’t serve you replaces it.

And that’s usually always the counterpoint, especially with police, they’re like, well what would we do instead?

I mean we’ve seen what we could do instead. We’ve seen that the majority of the police deployments are actually for nonviolence. They’re actually for mental health crises, for check-ins, for things like that.

We can have certified officials doing that kind of shit. We don’t need people with guns trying to get my man that’s on the boat out the middle of the street. We don’t need that level of escalation for a wellness check for somebody who is experiencing some extremities of their neurodivergence or whatever the case may be. We don’t need somebody with a gun or a taser or an aggressive voice or energy showing up to them and trying to be the person that’s gonna be that intervening factor.

So we know what we could do as an alternative. Abolition has a prospect of being enacted, because there are things that we can very clearly see needs change.

I don’t want you to think that our founding document that carried us over from 1776 till now is gonna be valid forever, or even that it’s valid now. That it doesn’t need improvement. What we really have to do is just challenge ourselves to think about the

plus. Like, okay cool, fuck the police. We want to abolish the police, they’ve disproportionately jailed, killed a certain portion of the population, the numbers bare it out.

That’s not an opinion, that’s an objective fact. Okay, cool, we’ve established that, but now what?

Let’s talk thoroughly about what comes next. Because if somebody snatched my granny purse, she gotta have some follow up. I’m not really gonna like that idea if we can’t secure things. And again black people are people who live through a lot of the exacted violence, so it’s not like we don’t like governance to some end. It’s not like we don’t like peace and order. It’s just that the police don’t represent governance, peace or order to black communities. They just have never done that for us.

And so it’s like, it’s challenging us to really figure out what is the thing, realistically. Again, being realistic. Let’s get some real concrete things on paper. What is this plan? Do we have a special force that is deployed for mental health crises? Cause like I said, that makes up a large number of dispatches. And there are other locales that have done pilots similar to that.

And they can’t even focus on actual hard crime because they’re stretched so thin.

They don’t stop crime. They respond to crime.

But they don’t stop crime and the stats show that. So again, if we’re gonna inject hundreds of millions of dollars into something that is not preventative in nature, maybe we should stop and think about

Statehood is a civil rights issue. It’s a civil rights issue because it inherently is linked to our civil rights. Right now we are taxed without representation, which quite literally is the founding principle of America, is the reason why we decided we wanted to depart from England, taxation without representation. So the idea of flipping it and using that same political ideology as the blueprint for your capital locale is fucking crazy. We are the only advanced nation in the world that has the capital of the country not tapped into the overall democracy that governs it. The only advanced nation in the world. So I mean, whether you’re doing your comparisons or whatever the case, it doesn’t check out. There’s 712 plus thousand residents here, mainly black and brown, that have all of the obligations as Americans serving on juries, serving in the military, with none of the same rights. And so it’s like, how can that be right? How is that something that makes sense?

For me, I don’t understand the pushback against DC statehood and the way that it happens. I think that a lot of the pushback against it is a scourge of misinformation around what DC is. Because again, the heart of this question is how DC’s lack of statehood is a civil rights issue. If DC is a state, we’re the only majority black state in the entire United States. That’s 51 fucking states and we would be the only majority black one. The only majority black state in the entire union.

Our representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton can suggest legislation, craft it, but ultimately she doesn’t have a vote or a final say in what takes place. And as you just alluded to, we would be the only majority black state within the US. A lot of the arguments on the national level I’ve seen against it, automatically

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 23 fall into politics. They say Democrats just want this much more representation within the House and Senate. Talk to me about why that shouldn’t be a reason statehood is blocked.

It’s a tired ass argument. I’m sick and tired of hearing that shit. First of all, with the way gentrification is whipping DC, we can’t even definitively speak to the political identity of Washington DC for the next 10 years at all. Like, yes, we have decidedly been liberal, but who’s to say that that’s gonna be a forever thing. But secondly, political parties and where they’ll fall in line should never be the reason for why or why not we choose to enfranchise Americans who deserve to be a part of a thing that we said is a thing. If democracy is democracy and it’s by the people for the people, let that shit be universal. You don’t get to pick and choose, you know what I’m saying? Literally there are some people that try to make it a Democrat issue or Republican, it’s like you said, it’s a human rights issue. It’s a civil rights issue. It’s to the point where, why are we paying the highest federal taxes, but being left out of access to federal institutions that would allow us to enact the changes or influence changes in the way that we want to. How many brilliant and profound minds do you think could be in the Senate?

We got AOCs here. We got Obama’s here. We have the whole spectrum of leadership. And if America thinks it has seen profound politics, I challenge them to come here to the city and really see what I’ve seen growing up, who I’ve seen. We were right here on the corner of 14th and Crittenden, watching people articulately politic about sports.

In depth with points, stats to back it.

Like the formula, the way that you would bring together any formal debate, it’s like bro, we have that talent. Why don’t we have that access?

With where we are with statehood currently, 10 years from now, do you see DC being a state?

Man. You know, I sit here and I wrestle with this question all the time. Cause people ask me, they’re like yo, realistically, like I know you do this work, do you see it? And it’s like, at the heart of the Republican Primary back in 2016, I did not see Donald Trump advancing legitimately through a field of seasoned veterans through the primary.

I didn’t. I said maybe he has a wild shot, sure. But I never saw that. So when we talk about predictive analysis in the world where every year seems to have been a different lesson in transformative politics, I cannot definitively say yes or no. Maybe Puerto Rico gets looped in with it and it’s a bargaining chip for both sides of the aisle and they decide to do it in 2024 to open up the vote for the general election because they want more votes for their candidate for president. They think that they stand better chances with that. Who knows?

There is no telling man. I think that for me, my sense of urgency is that DC statehood needs to happen years ago, decades ago.

So I’m working to make it happen in the next year And the year after that. And the year after that and the year after that, and there’s that same level of intensity stacked. So it’s like every year for these next 10 years, however that scales out, I’ll be going hard as though this is gonna be the year to get it done. Because no idea is more powerful than one whose time is coming. I feel like DC statehood’s time has come a long time ago and all the writing is on the wall. You know when people talk to me about what the forefathers intended and all that shit, it’s like yo, please stop talking to me about what a bunch of racist

old white people in powdered wigs who had slaves intended for my future bro.

Because if they intended anything, it was for you and I to be second class citizens. If they intended anything, it was for women to be relegated to a life of second class citizenship.

such a small segment of what DC is, but that’s always what people from far states associate us with. There’s a lot of people, especially during the work that I did with 51 for 51, where I was able to travel and go to the Iowas and New Hampshires, they don’t even know DC is a fucking place.

They’re like really? Outside of the white house there’s actually stuff there? Yeah, carry outs, mumbo sauce, go-go music; you could never understand. Sheets and funnel, just themes. There’s the Metro, whether bus or train both are unique experiences. We have this whole thing that people don’t even know about at all.

If Thomas Jefferson tasted a Dorito, he would lose his mind.

You know what I’m saying? Like stop talking to me about what they were doing in 1776. They’re gonna pass out eating a Nerds Rope bruh. They would never understand anything from today. So stop telling me that. Like yesterday’s sauce is today’s flavor, it’s cool. It delivered us to this point where we can now have a dialogue about it and realize there are things that need to be cut up. Now let’s stop back acting like this is that, because it aint.

Do you think people learning about that culture, about the uniqueness of the city, do you think that’ll play a role in getting statehood?

We’ve talked about this from a rights standpoint. But talk to me about it from a perk standpoint in terms of how we can control our money, how we can control laws within our state. Because I’m always reading about how Republicans are threatening to take away some of our rights.

They just keep playing with us, bro. Like we legalized weed.

We legalized weed. We knew we wanted to hit gas. There’s enough backwoods and sheets and funnel and all kinds of shit going on in this city where we decided as a social priority, hey look, people should not be arrested for smoking weed. We decided that with over 70% of the vote in 2014.

A dickhead from Maryland attached a provision to the bill, making it virtually impossible to sell. And that’s why we’re in the place that we are now where we have this sort of gifting market. So again man, it’s like, whether it’s something that folks might consider trivial like weed, whether it’s something more on a deeper level like the HIV needle exchange program, how the transmission of HIV happened because our needle exchange program wasn’t allowed to thrive. Let’s talk about, gun violence. DC has some of the most progressive gun violence laws on the books all across the nation. But due to our lack of a seat at the table to have an influenced dialogue around red flag laws and background checks, we got guns from West Virginia coming in and wreaking havoc.

Guns from Virginia coming in and wreaking havoc. Guns from these states with lack of regulations coming in and killing our young who? Black men and women. So to parret back to the question you asked me earlier about how this is a civil rights issue…

Again, we are Black as hell. The most affected by everything due to DC’s lack of statehood. We missed out on something to the tune of 700 million worth of relief from the CARES Act. Do you think COVID just pulled up to DC and was like, oh yeah, no they’re not a state, fuck it we gonna go light on em. No, they came and spanked shit. And where did they spank shit at?

Disproportionately black and brown communities. Although black people are only like 46% of the population, we made up more than that in the COVID death percentages. So again, everything inherently becomes a racial justice issue about DC statehood. Because when you think about all the pitfalls from our lack of it. When you think about the fact that DC not being able to fully legalize weed put in this like semi criminal status; who the fuck do you think is getting jammed up for the weed? People that look like me and you, it’s not them.

It’s nothing new canna entrepreneurs or whatever the fuck are the names that they come up with. It’s us.

So I really just employ people to

Top: Ty Hobson-Powell addresses protestors through a megaphone at the Capitol. understand that when you see these social issues that play out, seeing them from a 30,000 foot lens of being a larger issue, but also zoom into that bitch. Cause when you zoom in, especially in DC, it’s very black. But that’s not even just the case here in DC. Like I said it’s in most places. And as a vignette, when I went to Columbia, I was there in Meriden. I was trying to find people that had skin that was like mine. I didn’t ask them where the black people were, I just asked them where the poorest place was. That’s where I found them. And that as a norm is true here, and in Newark, and in Philly, and in Camden, and in Boston, and in Miami, and in Houston, and everywhere around this entire world. So, you know, DC statehood is just one of the same, it’s all tied to this global fight against white supremacy.

So we talked about how our population is about 46% black. We all know gentrification the past 20 years has been rapid.

Honest opinion here. With the growth of the white population here, the transplant population in general. Do you think that’s why statehood has garnered so much momentum recently? The most momentum it’s probably ever had.

Absolutely. These white folks want they rights and they gonna get ‘em ***laughter*** White folks want they rights and they gonna get ‘em bro. They’re coming from pockets of the world where they had agency, where their opinions mattered.

There’s a Congressman that lives in my district that has to be answerable to me and the social change that I want to see and if they’re not, this next midterm, I’m cooking they ass.

We don’t have that level of accountability here. We have political back and forth on either side of the aisle, people just jerking DC around playing with us. So yeah, absolutely.

So do you think as the population continues to change that the momentum for it will grow?

Absolutely.

How does that make you feel as someone who’s been advocating for this?

Being a native of this city as well.

That makes me feel like the writings already been on the wall. And what I want us to do is try to insulate ourselves from the harm as much as possible. Churches have been collecting black money for years and years, weekend and weekend.

I like the idea of community trust, where they start buying back land, selling it to their members at a reasonable price. It’s enough money swirling through them got damn collection plates. Let’s start doing God’s work for real, you know what I’m saying? I want us to start having some honest conversations about the fact that while we are not the Jeff Bezos of the world, we have built in institutions that we can use to insulate ourselves if we choose to stick together.

If we choose to really be unified. That’s really what I want. That’s how I see our way out of it. Ultimately this is a tide that is turning. There’s gonna be no way to change the overall effects of gentrification, we can lessen the effects. We can lessen the effects by insulating our community by teaching ‘em about the programs that exist about HPAP (Home Owners Assistance Program) about EAP (Employee Assistance Program), about inclusionary zoning, about having them do the work of sitting through these hour sessions so you can get you a free house real quick. And you can get you $50,000 down or $80,000 down or some income determinant support. Let’s tap in because what I will say about DC is, all flaws considered, this is one of the places that has the most opportunity I’ve ever seen. Compared to the United States, I would say it’s the best place to grow up and be black.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about the city?

That we are those white people that you see on Capitol hill. That we are the national monument. It’s a whole thriving culture that looks nothing like that. In fact, it’s

It plays a role. It humanizes us but we’re still black. You know what I’m saying? I don’t want niggas to ever be lost on that.

We’re still black. So it’s like yeah we see y’all...but we gonna wait till more of our folks get up in there before we really turn the wheels of change. That’s really what I feel. This is my prediction. This is my sort of vision. When DC’s black population dwindles to below 40, DC’s statehood cries will be violent, because at this point in time, these are folks that have come from places where they’re used to having agency, they’re used to their opinions mattering, and they will then be the majority. They will then be the folks that are in the driver’s seat. City Council’s composition’s gonna start looking different.

We’re going to start seeing some interesting mayors in the next decade.

In the next 10 to 15, we’re gonna start seeing real changes. And so it’s just like, I’m all for it, I just want black people to insulate themselves as much as possible.

Everybody is getting their little stake, let’s get ours. Let’s really be intentional about getting ours too, because that’s the only way that we’ll do it. It’s that consolidated power. A community land trust is the only way to compete against Douglas Development Corporations or Clark, or these larger entities. And even then you’re not really competing. You just getting what you can get. You stealing what you can get. We don’t got that money, but we’re gonna get our little snack and go home and it’ll be good and take that as a consolation, as opposed to going home hungry entirely.

As an activist and issue advocate, you’ve seen a lot of progress but you might have seen a lot of things stall. What keeps you optimistic? What keeps you continuing the fight?

What keeps me going is I’m black and I’m in this, I ain’t got a choice. I got a daughter.

She’s caught in the intersection of being a woman in a patriarchal society and being black in a white supremacist society. It’s layers, and I’m her protector. So if for nothing else, that, just in service to my daughter. But when I just think about it, bro I exist. I wake up every day and I’m decidedly black and 6’1. I scare people just by existing. I’m a nice person bro, I’m much more inclined to give you a dollar than take it but that’s not how I’m perceived. I know that. I live in that world.

We can laugh about it here, but it’s the same world where there’s a reason why Trayvon would get killed. It’s the same reason why Ahmaud Arbery can’t jog in peace. It’s the same reason why so many black men, women, non-binary folks have been victimized. So what keeps me going is, I don’t have a fucking choice. I am either active in changing this shit, or I’m passive and letting it happen to my people. And it’s like, I would rather take uncomfortable freedom than peaceful slavery.

24 The Pack Express SUMMER 2022

local

Generational Equity Movement is changing the conversation around marijuana and black business ownership in Washinton DC. NAYION PERKINS | EDITOR On March 31st, 2022, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called for a vote on emergency legislation that would give the city the ability to close down any marijuana gifting business in DC. The bill would implement these changes as soon as May, and many I-71 gifting shops would have been subject to closure.

For Generational Equity Movement, this breaking news caused shock for a few reasons. Not only were many of the members workers within the gifting community, they were hours away from releasing a documentary at the Angelika Pop-Up Theater at Union Market, that covered the very subject. GEM felt a conflicting feeling of fear of the unknown, but also power in knowing that they would soon have a movie theater sized audience that was ready to hear their input.

Culturally speaking, weed has always played a role within the city. DC has their own customary smoking rituals such as using sheets and funnel. Since 2014, DC has been living in a gray area when it comes to weed. It was now decriminalized to where MPD could now give out tickets for smoking in public instead of jail time, all the while still being federally illegal. You could now walk around with up to an ounce of weed on you, as long as you showed no intent to sell it. Residents are even allowed to grow a limited number of marijauna plants in their homes.

Businesses however, would face the most drastic and complex changes.

Selling weed was still illegal, but simply gifting it to someone was now decriminalized.This law created the gifting industry. As a loophole, businesses often sell art, books, pencils, stickers or other items, and accompany that purchase with a selection of weed. Since the weed is in addition to the initial purchase, it is considered a gift, and by law, legal. Most of these dealings are done in cash. For eight years this trend has continued with many black residents starting lucrative businesses within the marijuana space.

Many of them couple as creative businesses, often serving as incubator hubs for the arts.

Within the past few years, this gray area had been in constant threat, with various legislation proposals to strike this status down, despite the fact that in 2014, DC residents voted overwhelmingly to have weed legalized in their city.

Because DC is not a state, Republican Congressman from Maryland Andy Harris was able to insert a rider that prohibits local lawmakers from moving forward on legalizing marijuana sales.

Generational Equity Movement saw how entrepreneurship in this space gave a new wave of young Black Washingtonians an opportunity to provide for themselves and insulate their communities.

They also saw how the uncertainty of the marijuana laws in DC put many black entrepreneurs in danger of no longer being able to provide for themselves in a legal

marijuana market, the cannabis market in DC, it’s just unregulated right now. So we wanna make sure that when it does become regulated and people begin to profit off of it, we can consume most of those profits. We know that we have made up a large part of the city for a long time until we’ve been pushed out. And even now, we still have a large black population in comparison to other cities around the country. So we wanna make sure that the market reflects the city and who has been making up the cannabis market up until this point. Who’s been the innovators and the creators of these businesses? The entrepreneurs and the people who have been negatively affected by the criminalization of the flower.So make sure that those people get a piece of the leaf.

We obviously know that black people are a huge factor in the influence of marijuana and how it’s marketed. Do you think it’s intentional that the laws are what they are because there are a lot of black people that influence this industry?

Members of the Generational Equity Movement take a team photo at the documentary premiere of Young Gifting and Black. manner. So they decided to put together the documentary titled Young Gifting and Black, which explores DC’s relationship with weed, the positive things business owners have been able to provide for their communities, and how the issue of marijuana also goes into civil rights, and the politics of being denied agency without having DC statehood.

I chatted with members of Generational Equity Movement, including their documentarian, to pick their brains about the state of the marijuana industry in DC, and what went into making their documentary Young Gifting and Black. Here is an excerpt from our conversation: What is Generational Equity Movement and how would you all describe the group and your goals for it?

Generational Equity Movement is a coalition that we founded in 2019 with the premise of gaining equity for black people

in the cannabis market. That’s kind of our first feat because what we really want is to gain equity for black people in DC. Especially young black people, making sure that the next generation has something to monetize and pass on for generations to come. So right now our focus is cannabis. It was founded by a few owners of I-71 stores. These owners met with council members when they were first opening, and the council members were receptive to the stores being open.They didn’t realize that it was gonna be a real thing.

So now seeing that the laws are about to change, it’s kind of a you never know type of thing. If you look at the documentary you’ll see how it breaks down how Congress has a large role within us trying to become regulated in DC. Outside of that, we wanna make sure that when the law does get passed, when the rider gets lifted, there is some language in the bill about I-71 stores having a clear pathway to become recreational dispensaries.

Right now they’re disrespected as whatever business they’re filed under. Within us founding it and then trying to get regulation, now it’s become more so of us collaborating or attempting to collaborate with council members because the power is in their hands so they don’t just ignore us or just try to shut us down, kind of how they tried to do twice already. It’s more like we’re just waiting to be regulated.

Whatever things we can move on, we wanna move on those together. It’s not like the I-71 stores are this entity that just wanna stay in this gray or black market, we wanna become dispensaries, whatever that might look like.

What does equity look like to you all?

Is that being able to move freely, being regulated, being an official dispensary?

In DC it’s projected to be a multimillion dollar industry within a few years once the law gets passed. Black people run the

Yeah. I think it’s too soon to speak on that as far as DC goes because our regulated market just isn’t popping yet. We have seven dispensaries in the city, medical dispensaries. We have no recreational yet.

But in cities where it’s already regulated?

Yes. I think it’s very strategic. I don’t think it’s necessarily like, oh, let’s find a way to keep black people out. I don’t think it’s like that, but I think it’s more so the way that most of the systems work in this country, which is, we wanna make sure that we get the profit as corporations and million dollar capitalist. Whatever’s left over is left over, too bad for them. We just don’t have the power economically or politically to be able to say and stand up for ourselves sometimes in these other cities.

I think it’s all a trickle down effect, one thing leads to another. I think the root cause of all of this is years of oppression all the way back to slavery. But as of right now, I think it’s very strategic. It’s just sad to see. At the first public hearing on cannabis in DC last year on November 19th, a guy talked about the National Cannabis Festival, this huge cannabis related festival right next to the DC jail. Even with us pulling up on the day of this festival representing GEM, it was a moment of reflection for myself of like, this is crazy.

It’s something to see all the gentrification around there and all the new apartments that are popping up right next to the DC jail.

And before, it was just a very overlooked part of the city. It was kind of like, you gotta stay away from there, and now it’s just, it’s crazy. So that, paired with this big cannabis festival where all of these white people are profiting off of this product. That’s a way that you don’t even have to have your hands in it, you know what I mean? There’s so many different ways to profit off of cannabis right now.

So many different jobs and opportunities, and they’re going to continue to be able to take advantage of these opportunities

SUMMER 2022 The Pack Express 25 unless people like us come together and have a strategy, and build community to fight against it.

That’s actually a great point. I didn’t even think about how close that is.

Yeah, I didn’t think about it either until he said it. It’s crazy because the whole thing is just smoked out. They can smell it from their cells, like the whole joint is smoked out.

To get into kind of recent news, there was a bill proposed by Phil Mendelson, council chairman in DC, and the general premise of it was to alleviate so-called complaints by medical dispensaries.

They were saying things like I-71 businesses don’t face the same regulations.

Basically initiative 71 businesses were hurting medical marijuana businesses.

So initiative 71 businesses were kind of in this gray area where they might not be able to operate. Can you speak to that point, whether you agree with it or disagree with it?

I think it’s just two totally different battles.

The medicinal market, like I said before, is not popping ,why? It’s only seven dispensaries. With the number of cannabis users in DC and the number of people who would like to use it recreationally and not for medical purposes, there’s just no way that they can be serviced by just these seven stores. So that’s one part of it. Two, I think that the premise that we’re stopping the medical market from making money is just a lie. It’s a myth because of what I just said, but also because there are a lot of logistics and bureaucratic difficulties that they face Like a lot of red tape.

Because of all the loops that they make them go through. The hurdles that they make them jump over in order to obtain a license, maintain that license, stay in compliance. It’s just a lot of BS because of the federal government. In a lot of new cities where cannabis is becoming legal, it’s hard for medical dispensaries to sustain their customer base because of all the taxes, all the regulations, just a lot of politics within that. So I think that the fight that they’re fighting is very important and I think that they should fight to be able to make profit, especially because DC does have, I believe, three black business dispensaries. Generational Equity Movement actually had the chance to talk to one of the black business owners and we’re on the same page.

So what Phil Middleton is talking about, I think is a little bit more deeply rooted in what we were talking about, with people being strategic about not wanting to fight to make sure that these processes are equitable. It’s a lot easier to say hey, these stories are illegal, shut ‘em down, we don’t even wanna worry about them. It’s a lot more difficult to ask who makes up this market? Who’s running this market?

Is it black people? Is it people that we care about? What neighborhoods are they servicing? Who are the violent actors within this game? Let’s actually sit down and do some research, let’s collaborate.

The reason why I say that is because I-71 gift shops were never supposed to exist. Commerce was not written into that law, however black people took advantage, and began to figure out how to make money while staying within the law.

So I can understand how that’s like damn

man, this wasn’t meant for that, what are we doing? Then on top of that you got the Harris Rider, so you can’t even make a recreational law yet. So I get all of that.

But once again, that’s the easy way to just leave us out. When actually DC could be the first place that has the most equitable market off jump, because of the special place that we’re in.

You mentioned how there needs to be people to really go in and study why things play out the way they do. You also talked about who the violent actors are in this business. I think that’s one of the things that people complain about as well. They say these businesses create opportunities for crime or violence because people will try to rob these places. They kind of use these businesses as a scapegoat towards some crimes.

Can you speak a little bit on that and whether you agree or disagree with that sentiment?

Sometimes it’s black and white, sometimes it’s old and young, and sometimes it’s both. You got white old people talking about why there’s violence in the city when it doesn’t even affect them or their families. I think I’m much more aware of violence in the city than a Phil Mendelson is, and where it’s coming from. How you grow up can affect whether or not you become a violent person. So that’s one thing. Two, it is a scapegoat, it’s a cop out. Everybody’s trying to figure out a solution right now with how to keep their businesses safe because this is a hot commodity and because most of the time, people do use cash in this business given the regulations of the federal government.

So that’s just an overall thing that people have to deal with right now in the city. Yes, I do believe that there are some violent things that happen when a transaction takes place when you’re talking about weed. I think a lot of those things happen during deliveries. The stores that represent Generational Equity Movement do not have delivery services for that reason. But I’m not gonna sit here and knock the person who has a business that is based in the delivery service, maybe because they can’t afford a storefront or because they’re not willing to lose their liberation in that way. They kind of wanna stay a little more under their radar. It’s things that people have to do in order to provide for their families.

Sometimes it does lead to violence.

What we have done as a Generational Equity Movement is provide consultations to some of these businesses to help them become more safe and help them think through processes so it’s not just oh, I got weed, I’m trying to sell it. Try to help them stay within the law as much as they can so they can also become safe. At the end of the day, we are all under the same umbrella when a Phil Mendelson is talking about us. This part of the business in this entity is being run by our people. So we are not just going to look down on them for the things that they have to deal with.

There were a lot of people at the hearing who were business owners, and they said we wanna be able to call the police when people are being violent, but y’all don’t respect us as businesses. So I think it’s just turning a blind eye to the facts, you heard that at the hearing, he was speaking directly to Phil Mendelson.

We gotta figure out a way for my business to be regulated because I wanna be more safe, a guy said that out loud. So it’s a lot

of people that feel that way, even with GEM and that’s with consulting on the inside, they’re like yes, please help us figure this out, this is what we’re dealing with.

So people wanna be safe, people wanna be regulated, and the violence in the city has root causes that would take days to discuss. But it’s definitely not the damn gifting shops that are the cause of DC being the wild wild west as he called it.

Once our minds and our bodies can come together as black people, as people who care about our city, we can do anything. We saw that when we shut down the emergency legislation twice. So the first time that fueled us, made us realize that we do have community and we have a base that people support and they love us. They love our stores, but they also just love us and what we represent. So seeing that made us want to open up more people’s eyes to who we are and what we do.

Can you speak to what these businesses are doing for black communities, especially in a time where the city is in a transition, a lot of black people aren’t able to keep their businesses in the city or live here. Can you speak to what you’ve seen these businesses do for black entrepreneurs and people in black communities?

I guess the first thing is giving them money, employing them. An old Councilwoman from Oakland who authored the first social equity license, Destiny Brooks, said once you do that for somebody, you give them dignity and you give them pride. So I think we start there, and then they realize that it’s much deeper than that. We don’t think that our values are the only values that you can have as a black person, but we do believe in self advocacy, building up their self esteem, and showing them to value one another. You’re my brother, you’re my sister type of vibe, we’re a family. We know that some of the things that lead to violent actions around the city are not respecting the person next to you as a person.

And that somebody who was connected to you, when they win, you win.

When I win, they win. So just trying to put those values into our employees at work through various efforts, whether it be team building or we get a little bit beneath the surface. Professional development where we are very critical and have a very high expectation about the service that you’re providing and what you’re doing. Whether that is us saying hey, you actually can’t be gifted weed today because you’ve been smoking too much weed and we see that it’s negatively affecting your pockets and your energy, it’s getting out of control. So just really having that hands on approach and being willing to do whatever because I’m looking at these people like they’re my family, because they are. A lot of them are eight to 10 years younger than me.

So I do in a sense feel like they’re next up and I wanna make sure that they’re going to pour that into the next generation, similar to what our ancestors did for us. Just trying to keep that going and be a positive light. We deal with a lot of BS, black people in this city. When I was 21, I was in college but I was also homeless when I came back home. So not knowing where I’m going to sleep at or whose house I’m gonna be at, knowing I can’t be with my mom because she’s somewhere else due to gentrification. If they’re dealing with something like that, then when you come to work it should be a positive

environment where you feel like you’re being empowered.

A lot of them just from seeing us, seeing that representation in real time have started their own businesses. Getting them even more money, even more dignity, even more pride, even more smarts on how to be an entrepreneur. Because a lot of us never had the opportunity to even see that. So it’s deeply rooted. And it comes out in a plethora of ways throughout the way you run our business, but we invest a lot of resources, time and money into our staff. All of our missions are staff based, they’re not customer based, and they’re damn sure not weed based. It’s really just about uplifting our communities.

A shift to the documentary, Young Gifting and Black. What made you all want to come together and create this?

What was the end goal of putting this together?

Documentaries are all about characters.

I’m a storyteller at heart, no matter what I’m creating. After that first emergency legislation was introduced on November 2nd and I heard the rhetoric that was pushed around about who I-71 gifting shops were and what they did; It was kind of jarring compared to the actual facts when you visited the stores, when you were aware of that community. So at that point it became a desire to shed an inside view of what was really going on in the stores, and how the stores were transforming lives and what they were doing for the communities. Because the people who were pushing the rhetoric out, weren’t the people who were visiting the stores, or were in the stores, or as they say, boots on the ground. So the initial desire was to share a story about people, period. Not about weed. Not about cannabis. And not necessarily even about money, but about people. And I hope slash think that’s what we did.

And the timing of the release actually closely coincided with the most recent emergency legislation that almost took out initiative 71 businesses again. Can you talk about the coincidence of that?

What did you all think about that and did you feel purpose in how that timed up?

What was ironic was that they originally wanted to put it out at the end of February due to some important date that was supposed to be announced then. I think it was the decision on if the Rider would be lifted or not. So as a filmmaker, I was like that’s nearly impossible, our first film day was January 8th.

Then after that, the Rider wasn’t lifted and because the doc wasn’t finished, we just ended up implementing that into the documentary. Then we didn’t know that they were gonna release that emergency legislation until the same day as the documentary.

We made the final edit the night before, it was still just a push. And I do remember feeling like, well now we can use the audience here. Now the doc has even more purpose. The timing was God’s timing. And now we do have the stories ready and we have a movie theater full of people to say look, this is what you just watched, this is going on and now what and heres what we can do.

It’s crazy because Fox 5 reached out to us trying to show the opposition, as far as people feeling like these businesses are violent, and they show this violent clip of...

I don’t even know what that was honestly.

Then they were like, we wanna interview you guys and show the documentary you’re doing. So they came to the premiere and filmed there and went live.

And the next day they were like.. and this emergency legislation just came out, let’s talk about this.

So it was all kind of crazy. It was perfect timing for the media and press, our documentary was perfect. You would’ve thought we had it in the stacks and then we just scheduled a screening because that happened, which probably would be some strategy going forward, but it was literally just perfect timing.

Yeah, that was crazy to me, how that lined up like that.

Crazy, and it really helped with the city council. We did end up sending a password protected version of the documentary to some city council members and we do believe they watched it and that influenced their decision on that Tuesday when they voted.

So moving forward, do you have any more goals in terms of getting the documentary out or are you all kind of just pushing this initiative forward in general?

No, the documentary is separate. We put a lot of time, effort, and resources into it.

We’ve gotten great feedback. We wanna take it far, we wanna tell the story far beyond the political fight.

It’s always funny because there’s two sides of this coin, we’re all for the movement and for those goals. And then me as a filmmaker, I’m almost always like, but this is a film! We also have to do film things with it. So, I’m trying to get it to the DC Film Festival. So it’s been a constant negotiation of it’s a political tool, but it’s also a work of art.

Generally speaking, is there anything else that you all have planned moving forward, to bring awareness to the culture of marijuana businesses here, particularly with gifting shops?

I wouldn’t necessarily say to bring awareness to cannabis businesses, but just bring awareness to black people’s power over their own lives when it comes to policy and politics, and who we have in these offices. So a big push that we’re about to do now is voter registration booths. Generational Equity Movement is going to have those at various locations in the city. And just talk about the importance of young people voting.

I never thought that my vote necessarily counted. I always did vote, but I never had a strong belief in it. I never cared about politics that much. I felt like if you’re a politician, you don’t fuck with me. You gotta be fake, you gotta be phony. So I don’t wanna support you or back you as a person, or as a politician. And I think a lot of people have that rhetoric, black people especially who feel like the world and the government is just against them. But there is some power that we have in making these changes and showing up for ourselves and the generations to come in the form of voting. So we wanna have a big push on that. We’re gonna continue to show the documentary. We’ve had three successful showings thus far. So we wanna add to that and we just want to spread the word.

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washington wash ngtonian an probs “Not enough investment in local news.” @LauraHayesDC “housing - lack of proper investment EOTR - a mayor that ignores the most vulnerable citizens in her city” @levarct

What do you think is our city’s biggest Washingtonian problem?

Washingtonian Problems has turned into one of the great public forums for commentary on issues in DC. The topics range from breaking news in politics, violence in the city, all the way to new memes or pop culture announcements. Mayoral Candidate Trayon White annouced his candidacy for Mayor within the comments.

With swirling opinion contributions of DC natives, politicians, college students, the workforce, and those new to the city, you are bound to see an opinion in the comments that you agree with wholeheartedly, and one you completely do not understand at all. So it comes to no suprise that when the account asked “what’s the biggest Washingtonian Prob?”, there were a number of different answers.

“As a native Washingtonian, the bike lanes, parking, food deserts, gentrification, one way streets that used to be two way and what they did to the intersection of Florida, New York avenues and 1st Street aka the hott mess around the old Wendy’s.” @CreativeGemDC “Having people in office who have been there since I was in High School and who have not made any real changes in the city unless it makes the city money or brings in folks who don’t look like me. #theend” @PrincessTUD “Maryland drivers” @erpdc

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“Tie between adolescents committing crimes and traffic tickets for simply starting your car” @Nelly2fine “Mayor Bayang” @MyssBart

“Transplants” @hatefulluvr

“A real disconnect between “Washington” and DC” @theHillisHome

“Gentrification “ @dcmadness202 “Developers” @igotit4free “Non-Washingtonian politicians meddling in our local laws and denying us statehood” @Mr_Keels “Taxation w/o actual representation. DC has more residents than Vermont and Wyoming, but no voting power in Congress for reasons...” @AdrianRussell47

“Explaining to folks visiting that people actually live here and we don’t all work in politicis.

Also leave us alone. “ @WRyanMcCann “As a native Washingtonian, the bike lanes, parking, food deserts, gentrification, one way streets that used to be two way and what they did to the intersection of Florida, New Yrowk avenues and 1st Street aka the hott mess around the old Wendys” @CreativeGemDC

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WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?” @DeeWasJoking

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Washington D.C. has experienced the most intense rates of gentrification and displacement in the United States since the year 2000.

Displacement, By the Numbers

20,000

60,3399 34,520

The number of people the white More than 20,000 black The number of black population has increased by residents have been displaced residents that have decreased since 2000, an overall increase in D.C. since 2000 in economically expanding of 201.8% areas of D.C., 23.4% fewer

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