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All right. Today is June 22nd. My name is Daiki Tsumagari. My name is Inaya Rivera. We're here with the Humanities Truck at Home Rule festival. Can you tell us your name and what brought you out here today? Uh, my name is Sela Lewis. I came to the Home Rule Festival because, uh, I have called Washington, DC, my home for close to twenty years. I went to Howard University and graduated in 2005, and just have fallen in love with the city, all the ups and downs. And I didn't realize that DC did not have statehood until I went to undergrad. And I was like, what's the concept of statehood? Why does this city not have representation? And and it's through those years that I learned the history of what Home Rule meant in the 1970s—that before Home Rule, most black Washingtonians were sort of treated as like they lived in a colony. They didn't have the right to sort of define their own destiny and didn't have sovereignty. And then Home Rule and combined with the civil rights movement, created a drastically different frame in which Black people were the center of governance in this city, starting with Marion Berry as mayor and learning that history and fighting for like the right to determine how we want to govern ourselves is such an important aspect of living in a truly democratic society and celebrating that history, reminding ourselves of that history, but also reflecting upon the past and asking ourselves, what do we? What could we have done better? What can we do better going forward? How can we use the past to inform a better present and future, and also to just to get out of the house like it's hot today, but let's have fun together. There's a time where, like, it can't just be about work. But DC is best when we come together and we have a good time. So I just want to celebrate that.

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And so you mentioned that you're not originally from DC and we are at an event with the NPS. So do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah. So this is common right. Like do people joke all the time. Does DC is just full of these transients as we call them. But occasionally some of us stay behind and we choose to make this city our home. There are so many people say, I'm not from here, but when you really decide to say, I'm going to make this city my home, you need to really learn the history, and you need to appreciate the people who've laid down roots here for generations, but also really confront some of the contradictions. There's a real class problem within many parts of Washington, DC, including this neighborhood that we're in that need to be directly confronted because there's one half of the city that's thriving and the other half that isn't. And it's a very inconvenient, uncomfortable conversation, but it's one that we should have together. Um, and I want to talk a little bit about where the Parks— you know—Service falls into. So my background is I'm originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It's a city that a lot of people don't know much about. And I often tell people from this region, well, it's a lot like Baltimore, if you think about the way the city is set up and how it compares to DC. How Milwaukee is like by the lake, and it is near Chicago. But a lot of people don't know that it has a long socialist history. It's the only city that has three socialist mayors in its past. It has long—strong labor union protections and a real demand of the state, a real demand that, like the city governance, must, like, serve its citizens through investments and infrastructure, through parks and recreations. Like, we pride ourselves in Milwaukee and having a lot of parks in the city as a result. So I've often grown up with this idea that even in a city like Milwaukee, it's very segregated, like cities like Baltimore and cities in D.C., you still have investments in social infrastructure, and you still find a little bit of that to this day. So yes, you need to, like, insist that institutions create social space because the cities belong to the people. We are the tax base. We contribute to the social infrastructure. Therefore, we should be able to also occupy these spaces and make claims upon the state to say, hey, you are still not doing the best for us. And so it's really great to see the National Park Service act in partnership and recognize that history. And as you said it, it has an opportunity to also heal those wounds. But those those, those wounds don't heal with one term, right? They happen over several generations. And for the states to really step up, they need to continue to invest in events like this and really listen to to people. And shifting a little bit to the music side of today's event. What got you into kind of DC punk or Go-Go and like the music scene around the city? Yeah, I think for a lot of people like me who are not from here, the concept of DC's sound is like a little sprinkles, like you hear of Bad Brains, but its music is very regional. So for me, it wasn't Bad Brains, it was Violent Femmes because they were based out of Milwaukee. Go-Go music like Chuck Brown was the biggest ambassador of Go-Go music nationwide, but I didn't know how deep it ran until I was an undergrad at Howard. And I remember distinctly listening to WPGC on weeknights, and I was in my dorm in Slowe Hall and listening to the live music being like, "what is this? What are they doing?" Because it was like they were doing covers of songs and I thought, is this karaoke night? Like, what's going on here? And it just for, for me, so foreign to it, it felt like something of an acquired taste, like I didn't really know how to take it in. And then as years went on and I would hear that distinct Congo [sound] and the distinct drum beat, I just hear it and I get amped and it's like, okay, now I really feel like I'm from here because you can always tell the people who are new to DC in the second go go, music starts playing. They leave, they clear the floor, and then the people who are from here show up. And I became one of those people. And I realized, okay, I think I really get it now. And unfortunately, the punk music scene isn't as well culturally integrated as I would personally like to see again. Growing up in Milwaukee where like, you could be into all kinds of music and it wasn't like as segregated. Whereas the punk music scene has sort of like regressed and recessed itself a little bit. When I was coming up. So I had to kind of learn that history as it went on. And it's still you'll still occasionally see some independent bands, um, performing in some of the parks, but they're sort of not really as present as they could be. I think there's a lot of political reasons for why certain social spaces were reigned in to keep Go-Go music playing. I find it very curious that we have a mayor who is choosing to embrace Go-Go music. When I distinctly remember fifteen years ago, um, the mayor then was trying to close down nightclubs and calling Go-Go a source of violence, and violent crime and shootings, and now they're trying to raise up Go-Go as this huge political thing. And I think that's very opportunistic. It's very dishonest to exploit this, like homegrown sound for their political gain. And so it has to come to us. We have to celebrate the music. We have to support each other in that music and not let it be co-opted by people who are not acting in our economic or political interests.

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A little bit on that note, throughout the project, we have seen that there has been like many ways that fans of Go-Go and Go-go bands themselves have used the music as a way—or a form of activism. Is there a way that you have engaged in activism via Go-Go, or have you that—you have seen that done? Yes. So as I said before, I'm a part of my local Metro DSA. And last year, the last couple of years, we've done what we call these "Defund and Refunk", um, the district events that are centered around, uh, participatory budgeting workshops about what it means to actually defund the police. Like, you know, in the summer of 2020, it was a real serious call. And as again, a longtime DC resident, I never actually paid attention to the city budget until I heard that term. But I knew that it needed to be broken down in a way where people could understand it. But I didn't want to just have, like, this boring dry, like, let's—let's walk through our city budget. I said, no, it should have music, we should have food. We should have games a lot like what you all have here. So I recruited the Too Much [Talent] band last year, um, to perform live for us at the [I'll Ask you Fund refund?]. And we were over at Eastern Market—at Eastern Market, and it was amazing. Like they were just performing for people and for me. I don't like to, like, make everybody sit down and say, okay, you got to learn everything that comes in your DC budget. Now go out and cut the police budget. It was like, no, if you just bring joy to a community, that's enough. Like to see people dancing and enjoying themselves was enough to see people like, you know, if we had free food, you know, they were happy to get that and that. That to me is about bringing community together and recognizing that, like, we all should have some say in what is going on in our city and not just accept the given conditions that that are here, but we should do it joyfully. Um. On a little lighter note, um, what would you say are your favorite bands, both punk and Go-Go? Oh my God. Punk is admittedly a little difficult for me because it's like—I tend to sort of listen to music, and it isn't always like the immediate place I go to. But with Go-Go bands, it's sort of like, all right, if they're going to be performing live somewhere, I may go check them out. Um, so I like the Backyard Band. Um, and I mean, they've been around for ages and they're, they're really like legends in the game. And again, these younger bands that are coming up also need a lot of love, like Too Much Band. They just performed at, um, the Juneteenth celebration at Anacostia. And I might want to recognize—recognize Noochie. Noochie has this incredible, like, YouTube channel, um, where he just has amazing performances performed live on in a yard. And he just performs there as well. So I really look forward to to seeing him any time he comes around.

00:09:40.330 - 00:10:51.220

Um, just an off the cuff question. Our project is centered around womens' role in Go-Go, so I'm wondering in what way have you seen women play a part in such a big contributing factor in DC history, in terms of being both? I mean, I have seen—I mean, the vocalists, like the women who have just become the voice of Go-Go, especially locally. Like I said, Chuck Brown was the national voice, I didn't realize how many women were, you know, doing the harmonies and singing lead and probably doing a lot of heavy amount of songwriting within the Go-Go scene. So it was always impressive to see the women performing live and in person, along with all these amazing drum players and guitarists. Is there anything you'd like to add? Anyone else you'd like to shout out on your on your end? Oh, just like don't work all day. Go out and have fun. Like DC is not just a place for your job. Like, get in these streets, have a good time, tear shit up like that's what it's about. That's what makes life living the—living life to the fullest. So just get out there and enjoy the music and make space politically, culturally and socially for that to happen.

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Well, thank you for taking the time to do this with us. Yeah. Thank you for asking.