At a seminar, go-go musicians taught social studies and music teachers from D.C. public schools how to lace the city’s signature sound into their lesson plans.
By Susan Svrluga, THE WASHINGTON POST Published: February 16
Denise Dumas, a world history teacher from the Midwest with gray curls, pale skin and
granny glasses, had not heard of go-go before she moved to the District.
Now she knows Sugar Bear, David “32” Ellis and Sweet Cherie — and she’s going to bring some of that old-school funk to her classroom.
On Saturday, go-go musicians taught social studies and music teachers from D.C. public schools how to lace the city’s signature sound into their lesson plans, an effort to celebrate the students’ cultural heritage and better engage them in class.
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The program — “Teach the Beat: Go Go in DC” — had the usual
trappings of a professional-development seminar: name tags, fluorescent lighting, Post-it notes. But it also had hints of the sweaty, dance-crazy club scene, with thumping pocket beats and swiveling necks, and more than a few answers to teachers’ questions spun off into long, improvisational riffs.It's hard to capture go-go on a recording, John “JB” Buchanan told the teachers. The music is a lot about jamming and the intense reaction from the crowd, the arm-waving, hip-shaking and call-and-response. |
For Dumas, that means she can try using the music to get students not only to listen but also to participate in class. She knows most of her ninth-graders at Cardozo High School — some of whom are 17 because they have repeatedly failed courses — don’t see the history she teaches as relevant to their lives in the city.
