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Go-Go music is the actual official music of Washington, D.C. is home. It is a gut feeling.

I'm a third-generation Washingtonian, so Go-Go has just been something that's been innate since birth.

Growing up here in the Chocolate City and the DMV, when I hear Go-Go and I hear Chuck Brown and Big G and new impressions,

CCB, UCB, TCB, T-CB, all the CB's backyard.

And having a literal drum beat that is the beat of the city is an iconic backdrop to a very beautiful upbringing.

It's a stage, it's a microphone.

It's something where I can speak and I can sing and I can use my voice to captivate others and elevate others.

Go-go and save my life, man.

It's Notes from America.

I'm Kai Wright. Welcome to the show.

Washington, D.C. is a place of symbols. Statues, monuments, seals. They all blanket the nation's capital.

And of course, the city itself is something of a symbol. But today, we're going to take a detour from ceremonial displays and the

pompous circumstance of the National Mall out into the DMV. That, for those who don't know,

is D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, the D.C. metro area. That's where you'll find a hallmark

of D.C. culture known as GoGo.

Go Go is a unique form of black American music.

And perhaps what makes it most unique is that I like jazz or rock, it hasn't been totally

co-opted from the culture that gave it life.

But GoGo is experiencing a shift in Washington, and I've invited someone to the show today to tell us more about that.

Ciona Petros is a producer for Notes from America, who grew up in Virginia and is based in the DMV.

She now joins me to talk about a new effort at preserving GoGo Music Culture.

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