Teach the Beat!

Bringing the distinctive D.C. sound of go-go into the classroom.

Teaching for Change is honored to work with D.C.  area schools and the authors of The Beat! Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C. to develop lessons and share teaching ideas for infusing the history and music of go-go in middle and high school social studies, language arts, math, music, and/or D.C. history classes, and to bring renowned go-go performers into D.C. classrooms.

"Go-go has stayed true to time-honored cultural scripts such as live call-and-response, live instrumentation, as well as its locally rooted fashions, slang, dance, distribution and economic systems. Simply put: Go-Go never sold out. There is a grit and texture to the music that gives voice to the communities where it was created." –Natalie Hopkinson

LEARN MORE ABOUT GO-GO     SIGN UP    DONATE

February 7: Sweet Cherie at Washington International School

 

During a middle school assembly, there wasn’t an empty seat in Washington International School’s theater  — unless the students and teachers were up dancing to Sweet Cherie’s music!

Lauren Wright, middle school humanities teacher, shared that this wasn’t the first time the school experienced Sweet Cherie. Many saw her at the Kennedy Center family programming in March of 2022, and they just knew they had to have her facilitate a visit to their school!

With this visit, Cherie dove deeper into the history of go-go, speaking to students about the different sub-genres and their many bands. Students asked Cherie how long she’d been a musician, what inspired the name for her all-women’s band Be’la Dona, and how well she knew Chuck Brown.

Middle schoolers, often shy to dance and participate in group activities, rushed to the theater’s center so they could dance along with Sweet Cherie when she wrapped the session and dismissed them to enjoy the rest of their school day!

Wright shared:

THANK YOU! We had a great time, and I got tons of great feedback from the kids.

 
Copyright © The Beat · All Rights Reserved

Website developed by Teaching for Change with support from
the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Image credits: Thomas Sayers Ellis

Privacy Notice | Search this website