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Okay, could you tell us your name and about your relationship to the Petworth neighborhood? Sure, my name is Drew Schneider. I've lived in Petworth for 16 years and I'm the founder and publisher of Petworth News, which is a local news blog that writes about the information, news, events, culture, that happens in our neighborhood. Could you tell us a little bit about some memorable celebrations you've had in the neighborhood? Sure, you know, I think the first memorable celebration I remember was the Caribbean Day parade that used to go down Georgia Avenue and they would close down Georgia Avenue. And it was this amazing celebration: parade, costumes, colors, floats, the food. It was a really amazing experience. And then as time went on, they started the Celebrate Petworth festival and that happened here on Upshur Street and that became an opportunity for people to celebrate the neighborhood specifically. And to really start thinking about pride of place and enjoying why—what it is that happens in the neighborhood and why you enjoy living here.

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How would you describe some of the like—you told us about that shift. For you, how would you describe that change in the way people have been celebrating in Petworth since you first moved here? So the Caribbean Festival ran out of funds and they stopped doing it. And so there was a pause for a while and then a group came together and did the first Celebrate Petworth Festival about eight, nine years ago now. And that really was one of the first opportunities to really step out and see all of your neighbors at an organized event that wasn't a block party, which do happen a lot, potlucks—and then as well as the Petworth Jazz project, which happens in a free park here in the neighborhood. What it really is, it's about having the opportunity to gather amongst the other neighbors who you know, who you don't, who you haven't had a chance to meet and really get to see the diversity of the different people who live here. Both have lived here for 40 plus years and who moved here in the last 10 years as the neighborhood has changed. And how long's that festival been going on for? So the Celebrate Petworth festival started—I want to say about seven or eight years ago and started out—the very first festival was on a rainy day. Still got people to come out and and now, I mean it's grown and it's gotten larger and and more vendors come out and there's food and there's a main stage and there's music, there's a dog show. So it's grown in the past eight years.

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Where would you like to see celebrations in Petworth be in five years from now? One of the really, most amazing things that we did in the past year, or that occurred in the past year was something called Petworth Porch Fest. This was put on by a couple of other neighbors where they organized over a hundred houses throughout the neighborhood to have free music on the porches. So on one day, between about four hours, over a hundred bands played and that was an amazing experience. Streets just ended up being closed because so many people came out just to stand and watch and dance and to participate. And so those type of localized little parks where people can gather and get to know their neighbors, what we used to do something called the socials. The Grant Circles Social, the Sherman Circle social, there's a southwest Petworth lemonade social—these big events. Like the festivals are wonderful, but there's also something really special about the small celebrations of just a few blocks of where those neighbors who live close together have the opportunity to come out and meet and socialize. Thank you so much. You're welcome.