Ribbon cutting kit for the Go-Go Museum and Cafe on November 18

After years of planning, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Go-Go Museum and Cafe, honoring the genre popularized in the D.C. area, will happen on November 18.

According to a press release shared by Popville, the long-awaited 8,000-square-foot museum situated in Anacostia will likely be open to the public on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The Go-Go Museum and Cafe will likely be available for special occasions. It will likely be open to visitors on the first and third Saturday of the month.

Behind the museum is community organizer and go-go promoter Ron Moten, co-founder of the #DontMuteDC movement, founded in 2019 to preserve go-go music. The museum’s predominant curator is Dr. Natalie Hopkinson, co-founder of Don’t Mute DC, who published her doctoral thesis and book on go-go music in 2007.

The Go-Go Museum and Cafe will, after all, include a restaurant and three special zones for exhibitions and interactive attractions. There is a recording studio on site. An outdoor space with a stage will likely be available for live performances.

Attendees can see technology not seen in local museums, including holograms of Backyard Band pioneer and star Ralph Anwan Glover and UE’s Sugarbear, where visitors can interact with the characters. There is a graffiti exhibit where visitors can mark the partitions of the museum using digital spray cans. Fans of the genre can see artifacts comparable to a Rare Essence bomber jacket, a DJ Kool concert jacket, a wig and concert outfit from Maiesh and the Hip Huggers, a Chuck Brown cutout used during in-store promotions, and many other go-go music related items.

The museum is positioned near the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and the Busboys & Poets house at 1920 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. S.E.

Additional information could be found on the museum’s website website.