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My name is Claire Berlin. Today is September 8th. We are at the Adams Morgan Day Festival. Do I have your permission to record this interview?

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Yes, please. All right. Great. And if you could just say your

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name and your connection to the Adams Morgan community. Uh, my name is Alyssa G. Waldrop. I've been here since 1984. I've been watching Adams Morgan Festival.

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I attend almost every year. I'm a taxi driver. I can't miss it. I always come and enjoy it.

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It's a multicultural festival. Uh, they they have always music and dancing and different kind of food. I always enjoy it.

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What are some of your favorite memories of the festival? Any favorite vendors you have? Uh, well, they, uh, have a speech when they have a music. Dancing, you know, uh, they have a show.

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Always. I like it, and the food is good. Great. And then.

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So you've been a member of the community for quite some time. Are there any changes you've seen, um, throughout that time that you've lived here? To be honest, a long time ago it used to be more crowded, especially in the [19]80s.

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They used to. They used to go all the way to 16[th Street] Columbia. Although with the park in 16 and

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Columbia. But now, I don't know, maybe a little bit change is less, but I hope to see it more coming up. What do you think are the reasons for those changes?

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And then are there any ways that you think you could get those numbers up again and you could see that expansion that you. Used to see? It's possible you know, the community if you let them evolve.

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You know, uh, you know, it's possible the more we are from all over the world. So we have to help the community grow and we can do it. You know, participation is very important.

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Great. Was there anything else that you wanted to highlight? Anything else you wanted to shout out or touch on? Well, I came from Sudan, from

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Eritrea. I got into Sudan August 8th, 1981, and I left Sudan August 8th, 1984. I arrived here August 11th, in New

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York. And that's a special day for me. I'm always 27 years old. Nice meeting you.

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Enjoy the festival. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm 27.