About the FIlm Go-Go Music, Gentrification, and Protest in Washington, DC For decades, Washington, DC has been a beacon for Black culture and community. Now, however, a wave of economic and cultural gentrification occurring at breakneck speed threatens to erase this history. Go-Go City: Displacement & Protest in Washington, DC, a documentary film by Samuel George dives into this rich and colorful tapestry and the forces behind the gentrification that stand to mute it. The film interweaves scenes of protest as displaced communities take to the streets to rally around the city’s beloved Go-Go music. Featuring interviews with legends of Go-Go such as Big Tony, Sugar Bear, and Anwan “Big G” Clover, as well as business leaders such as Richard “Dickie” Shannon of Horace and Dickie’s and Virginia Ali of Ben’s Chili Bowl, the film offers an historical overview of the cultural and economic forces that made Washington, DC “Chocolate City”. But as protesters for racial justice took to the District’s streets in the summer of 2020, the music took on another life. The documentary follows this movement with vérité scenes of protests and marches that often centered Go-Go bands, performing live on the back of flatbed trucks. The film thus documents a poetic moment in which the long-term citizens of Washington, DC – the communities most impacted by rampant gentrification – rally around the unique music to retake the streets and make their voices heard. As protest organizer Terrence Odom recites from a poem that opens the film, “Just sit back and listen. This is a new resistance.”