Elsewhere are artifacts and installations that spotlight go-go in cinema, fashion and photography. Another exhibit centers the LGBTQ community. There’s a “street art” exhibit complete with a digital spray can for signature graffiti “tags.”
Not surprisingly, the museum gives props to go-go pioneers, royalty and popular entertainers. Besides Brown (who died in 2012), they include Experience Unlimited, aka E.U. (who became nationally known after appearing in Spike Lee’s 1988 film “School Daze”) and the all-woman band Be’ La Dona, to name a few.
Moreover, a museum timeline charts go-go’s history. Despite its proud evolution, Moten says there have been “ups and downs.” In the 1990s, reports of conflicts and violence in or around dance halls led to youth curfews.
In 2019, noise complaints from a luxury apartment building about a D.C. retailer playing go-go prompted backlash and protests. A #DontMuteDC hashtag started by a Howard University student went viral. Moten and Hopkinson then led the “Don’t Mute D.C. go-go music and culture” petition, which received about 80,000 signatures. The movement drew musicians, advocates and supporters nationwide and globally, and led to a push for DC Law 23-71. It repealed the curfews and made the music “official.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who signed the measure, has championed go-go, and her administration provided the museum with fiscal support.
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