#DontMuteDC and Moechella Protest Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Apr 7 2019

Location: 

Washington D.C.

In response to white gentrifiers trying to silence go-go music on the corners of Florida Avenue and 7th Avenue, activists and D.C. residents poured into the streets by blasting go-go music and celebrating its rich history within the city. For those unfamiliar, go-go music is at the heart of D.C. culture and features live bands playing covers of, and sometimes original, music with all different types of drums and other percussion instruments. The area of Florida Ave and 7th Ave "had recently seen the rise of luxury buildings, had always been a “noisy,” mecca where go-go music could be heard pouring into the streets, especially at the corner where the T-Mobile Metro PC store was located with its loudspeakers" (Rolling Stone).

"The movement drew the support of more than 80,000 people who signed the Don’t Mute DC Music and Culture petition in April 2019, which brought back music to Central Communications/Metro PCS in Shaw. Since then, the movement has activated thousands of Washingtonians to help secure a number of cultural and policy victories." (Kennedy Center)

External sources: 

https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/d/do-dz/dont-mute-dc/
https://www.communityneighbor.org/post/the-power-of-moechella
Posted by yulani.r on Jan 30 2024

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Shifts (culture)Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.
Strengthens (community)Strengthens, builds and celebrates community through ritual and/or symbol.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear short-term goal. Short-term goals tend to be things like: create or repeal a law; get a President impeached; make the city administration repair a sidewalk. A campaign with a short-term goal needs a clear theory of change, complete with targets that can be cajoled or pressured into effecting the goal.
allow go-go music to be played in the streets of D.C.
This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
D.C. statehood, racial housing issues, end gentrification, change the perception of D.C. culture specifically go-go music

Notes

"Restoring $22 million in cuts to United Medical Center, the only hospital in Ward 7 and 8; Restoring $53 million funds to Banneker High School’s renovation; Restoring funds to Project Empowerment; Restoring funds to Ward 7 and 8 schools; the introduction of legislation to make Go-Go the official music of Washington, D.C." (Kennedy Center)