Help Finish GoGo Music Museum and Cafe

Since the 2008 Go-Go Awards, leaders in the Go-Go movement and community activist Ronald Moten have led the way for DC to have a Go-Go Music Museum.  The time has arrived as the Check It Enterprises Culture Center partners with leaders in the Go-Go Community to open the Go-Go Music Museum and Café in Ward 8's own historic Anacostia.  With your donation, we will finally be able to finish this longstanding, ongoing project which is now near completion. This new project inside the Check It building will enhance programming that will be incorporated into a brand new, two-level Go-Go Music Museum, Café and event space which includes an outdoor garden and performance space.  Go-Go bands such as Junkyard, TOB, Sirus & Company and Jazz greats like Marcus Johnson have all performed at this vibrant space and we envision a continued elevation of this great artistry. 

Over the last 4 years this social enterprise, started by former leaders of a marginalized gang, has raised over $70,000 to transform this building into a popular culture space that has become a staple in a once forgotten location and community.  Thanks to a recent grant from DMPED, the GoGo Café is complete and awaiting inspection.  The Go-Go Café will not only serve as an outlet for the Go-Go music industry, but it will also serve as a place where artists can come to showcase their talents while also helping to preserve D.C.’s music, history, and culture by teaching the next generation of Go-Go artists, Washingtonians, and tourists.   This endeavor will also show an entire generation that being a small business owner is not out of their grasp.

To add to this excitement, we are also happy to announce the museum will incorporate DC’s first cultural tourism workforce training and placement program, with a focus on hospitality, culinary arts, and sound engineering, and bring much-needed resources to our Returning Citizen and LGBTQ communities through a  partnership with Check It Enterprises, National Association of the Advancement of Returning Citizens and Yaay Me Inc.

The Go-Go Museum will have an advisory committee made of Go-Go music historians, scholars and musicians dedicated to the preservation of the cultural artifacts and legacy of the entire Go-Go music scene. The museum will seek to attract youth, local community members, and tourists by showcasing the hard work and achievements of the past heroes and living legends of Go-Go Music and culture.  The adjoining Café will offer apparel, souvenirs, merchandise and food options to visitors and supporters of DC's Go-Go music community, which will also help to further support the future expansion of the museum as the process for purchasing the building is being finalized. Your donation will go a long way in the fight to save DC’s authentic, homegrown music and culture as we continue to fight against cultural erasure through gentrification