June 5, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 9
Arts & Entertainment
News
DC’s Go-Go Sound Becomes
Anti-Gentrification Battle Cry
We’re in a Golden
Age of Black
Horror Films
Artists, organizers call genre a symbol of Black D.C. culture
Octavia Spencer is one
of the few Black women
to have a lead role in a
horror film
By Robin R. Means Coleman
The Conversation
n the horror genre, Black is defi-
nitely back.
The movie “Ma,” which pre-
miered on May 31, stars Academy
Award winner Octavia Spencer as
Sue Ann, a lonely middle-age woman
who clings to a group of teens to the
point of obsession.
“Ma” comes on the heels of Jordan
Peele’s critically acclaimed “Us,”
which is also led by an Academy
Award winner, Lupita Nyong’o. And
let’s not forget that Peele’s previous
film, “Get Out,” won the Academy
Award for best screenplay last year.
Black actors have always had a role
in horror films. But something differ-
ent is taking place today: the re-emer-
gence of true black horror films.
Rather than simply including Black
characters, many of these films are
created by Blacks, star Blacks or focus
on Black life and culture.
AKIL RANSOME VIA AP
I
In this image Moechella music rally at the corner of 14th and U street NW in Washington, Tuesday, May
7, 2019. Go-go music, a distinctive Washington DC-specific offshoot of funk, has endured for decades
through cultural shifts, fluctuations in popularity and law enforcement purges. Now go-go has taken on
a new mantle: battle hymn for the fight against a gentrification wave that s reshaping the city.
By Ashraf Khalil
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It’s
the soundtrack of “Choc-
olate City,” the nonfeder-
al Washington that has
traditionally been a tent
pole of Black America.
Go-go music, a distinc-
tive D.C.-specific offshoot
of funk, has endured for
decades through cultur-
al shifts, fluctuations in
popularity and law en-
forcement purges.
Now go-go has taken
on a new mantle: bat-
tle hymn for the fight
against a gentrification
wave that’s reshaping the
city.
“It’s a very deep cul-
tural thing,” said Justin
“Yaddiya” Johnson, an
activist and organizer
of several go-go-themed
protest concerts. “When
you think about go-go,
you should think about
D.C. culture. It should be
the symbol of our cul-
ture.”
Many longtime Wash-
ingtonians fear that
culture is being steadi-
ly eroded as the city be-
comes Whiter and rich-
er. A recent controversy
over an innocuous noise
complaint placed go-go
at the center of a perfect
storm of gentrification
symbolism.
The owner of a popu-
lar mobile phone store
in the historically Black
Shaw neighborhood was
told to turn off the go-go
that he had been play-
ing through sidewalk
speakers for more than
20 years. He claims the
complaint came from a
resident of the gleaming
new mixed-used apart-
ment building erected on
the next block.
The reaction was fierce.
Seemingly overnight, a
protest movement and
petition drive sprung up
and members of the D.C.
Council started weighing
in. Within days, the deci-
sion was reversed.
The mini-controversy
was over almost before it
started. But it obviously
touched a nerve.
“I think that was
messed up. Go-go IS D.C.
Go-Go is our history,”
said community activ-
ist Tiffany Richardson,
one of the thousands
of fans who turned out
on a Tuesday night this
month for an outdoor
concert/protest
fea-
turing go-go mainstays
Backyard Band. “They’re
not going to stop go-go.”
The concert, mischie-
vously named “Moech-
ella,” was organized by
Johnson. And since it was
a protest, he didn’t need
to secure a permit, so po-
lice obligingly blocked
off several city blocks.
The location —the cor-
ner of 14th and U streets
— was no accident. That
intersection was once
one of the hearts of Black
D.C.; now it’s within two
blocks of a Trader Joe’s
and a lululemon.
To the uninitiated, go-
go music seems indis-
tinguishable from funk.
What sets it apart are
a specific conga-driven
syncopation, known as
the pocket beat, and a cul-
ture of call-and-response
that turns the crowd into
part of the show. Go-go
bands feature multiple
percussionists and often
multiple vocalists— with
one usually designated
as “lead talker.”
“It’s the drumming it’s
the rhythm pattern. It’s
the feel of the rhythm,”
said
Liza
Figueroa
Kravinsky, founder of
the band Go-Go Sympho-
ny. “In go-go, the fans
know who the conga
player is more than the
guitar player.”
The late Chuck Brown
is generally considered
the godfather of the
sound, starting in the
early 1970s. And bands
like Rare Essence and
Trouble Funk have
all flirted with main-
stream success, but
there has never been a
full-scale breakout star.
Probably the most fa-
mous go-go song is “Da
Butt” by Experience
Unlimited, which was
showcased in the Spike
Lee film “School Daze.”
While the music re-
tains a local fanbase,
musicians and devo-
tees say the scene is
still recovering from
the effects of the crack
epidemic, which rav-
aged Washington and
turned go-go shows
into magnets for vio-
lence. Eventually po-
lice began shutting
down famous clubs like
the Ibex in 1990s and
forcing the shows out
of the city.
Anwan “Big G” Glov-
er, lead talker of Back-
yard Band, still recalls
the time with bitterness.
Authorities blamed the
music for drawing vio-
lence when he says go-go
was simply the ambient
soundtrack of a city in
crisis.
“Those rave parties in
the suburbs with these
rich kids — if anything
happened there, they
could just cover it up.
That was the difference,”
he said.
The purge was espe-
cially damaging because
go-go is all about live per-
formances. Glover and
others say there’s a miss-
ing generation of fans
who weren’t exposed to
See GO-GO on page 10
Objects of violence and ridicule
For most of film history, Black ac-
tors have appeared in horror films in
supporting roles. Many were deeply
problematic.
In my 2011 book, “Horror Noire:
Blacks in American Horror Films
from the 1890s to Present,” I describe
some of these tropes.
In the early 20th century, many
films – horror or not – had White
actors appearing in blackface. The
characters could find themselves on
the receiving end of especially horrif-
ic violence. For example, in 1904’s “A
Nigger in the Woodpile,” a Black cou-
ple’s home is firebombed and the pair
staggers out, charred.
In the 1930s, there was a spate of
horror films that took place in jun-
gles, where Blacks were depicted as
primitive – sometimes indistinguish-
able from apes. A decade later, Black
characters started appearing in hor-
ror films as objects of ridicule. Actors
like Willie Best and Mantan More-
land appeared as comic relief – char-
acters for audiences to dismissively
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This still shows Duane Jones as Ben in “Night of
the Living Dead,” one of the first fully developed
characters in an American horror movie.
mock.
To be sure, there were some instances
in which Black actors assumed leading
roles. The 1934 film “Chloe, Love is Call-
ing You” starred Black actress Geor-
gette Harvey as the vengeful Mandy. In
1957, Joel Fluellen portrayed the smart
and reliable Arobi in “Monster from
Green Hell.”
However, often these characters ex-
isted to support the survival of their
White counterparts.
From placeholders to full participants
For a brief period, in the 1960s and
1970s, horror films began to treat
Blacks as whole and full subjects.
Many of these narratives centered on
Black culture and experiences. More
often than not, Blacks played the role of
hero. For example, the 1972 film “Blacu-
la” begins in 1780 and is an indictment
of the slave trade and its lingering ef-
fects. In the 1974 film “Sugar Hill,” a
Black female protagonist named Sugar,
with the help of her Black zombie army,
lays waste to a murderous White crime
boss and his cronies.
Then there was Bill Gunn’s 1973 art-
house horror film, “Ganja & Hess.” A
gorgeous and deliberative treatise on
race, class, mental illness and addic-
tion, it won the Critics’ Choice prize at
the Cannes Film Festival. However, no
Hollywood studio was willing to dis-
tribute the film.
The classic of the era is George Rome-
ro’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead,”
which stars Duane Jones as Ben, a
strong, complex Black character who
leads a group of Whites during a zom-
bie apocalypse. Confounding the cli-
chéd trope of “the Black guy dies first,”
Ben is the lone survivor of the terrify-
ing battle.
In a turn of realism, he emerges tri-
umphant – only to be summarily shot
down by a militia of White police and
civilians. Ben’s death, which comes at
the movie’s conclusion, is as unexpect-
ed as it is powerful. The scene demands
that audiences consider who among us
is truly monstrous.
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