Capital Jazz Festival | Washington D.C.

Each year in early June (since 1993), tens of thousands of music lovers from throughout the country flock to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. to enjoy hot fun and cool jazz of the Capital Jazz Fest, once referred to by guitarist Chuck Loeb as the “Woodstock of jazz festivals .This multi-day, multi-stage outdoor music [...]

Ellington School for the Arts | Washington, D.C.

Named for the American jazz bandleader and composer Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899–1974), the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts, located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C, was founded in 1974 and is the only DC public high school that provides professional arts training and college preparation to talented DC public school students. [...]

Duke Ellington’s Washington

The companion website of the one-hour PBS documentary, Duke Ellington’s Washington, about the African-American community in Washington D.C. during the early 20th century which nurtured the emergence of a surprising array of talented African-American lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and cultural figures, epitomized by Duke Ellington. The program is a dynamic blend of the music and pictures [...]

Duke Ellington Mural | Washington D.C.

The Duke Ellington Mural is located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington D.C., within the Mount Vernon Square historic district, an area that has been a hub of African-American cultural life since the late 19th century and the neighborhood that shaped and nurtured him. The Duke grew up just around the corner on Bates Street [...]

U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC

It was recently discovered (2005) that slaves made up more than half of the workforce when the U.S. Congress authorized the construction a new national capital building in 1790. Records confirm that slaves did much of the brickmaking, hauling, foundation-digging, masonry, nail-making and carpentry involved in the contruction of the Capitol, the White House, the [...]

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