Clear your calendar - It's going down! Schedule Blocks kicks off on May 20th, and you're invited to take part in the festivities. Splash HQ (122 W 26th St) is our meeting spot for a night of fun and excitement. Come one, come all, bring a guest, and hang loose. This is going to be epic!
Clear your calendar - It's going down! The Emancipation Day festivities will take place on Saturday, April 13 and the parade will start at 2:00 PM at 10th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The concert kicks off at 3:00 PM and will feature an all-star lineup of some of the best artists in the game! The concert at Freedom Plaza will also feature many of DC's own homegrown talent. Stay tuned for more updates and visit the "Save the Dates Section" for more information!
August is here, and we are just weeks away from September's Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents 202Creates Month. The month-long celebration of DC's creative culture begins September 1, 2022, with 202Creates Kick-Off event. The month also features Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents the Mayor's Arts Awards on September 13, 2022. DC Radio 96.3HD4's 5th Anniversary Celebration takes place on September 19, 2022. We have a host of other exciting creative community events all month long. The #EntertainDC Office is excited to have District creatives and residents join us for all the festivities and did I mention our events are FREE!!!!!
Our 202Creates Month Kick-off celebration will feature live performances and activations highlighting and amplifying the District's resilient and unstoppable creative community on the District Pier at The Wharf with a 202Creates Pop-Up Lounge at La Vie Rooftop. For RSVP information, read more in the newsletter.
202Creates Month will continue with the 37th Annual Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents the Mayor's Arts Awards at Capital Turnaround. This year's theme is "A Night of DC Stars." More information on this event can be found within the newsletter.
When it's August in DC, it's "Hot In Herre" and we feel like "Bustin' Loose" . This month, we also honor the life and legacy of Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go music. We are grateful for his creation of the iconic sound and his influence on generations of musicians in the District and around the world. Check out the legends of Go-Go music sharing what Chuck Brown means to them and more in our Straight Crankin' series streaming now on DCE.
Tune in to a special DCN Presentation the with the matriarch of DC's own Ben's Chili Bowl. I am proud to have hosted a 'Conversation with Virginia Ali' premiering the weekend of Ben's Chili Bowl's 64th Anniversary on Friday, August 19, 2022.
Follow us on social media to keep up with our creative community.
Facebook: Entertain DC, DCRadioHD, 202Creates
Instagram: Entertain_DC, 202Creates, DCRadioHD, CreativeAffairsDC
Twitter: Entertain_DC, 202Creates
Dr. Angie M. Gates
Director
DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment
Hey DC, it’s time to raise the roof and celebrate our city’s creative community! Come hang with us as we fire up the Southwest waterfront to launch this year’s 202Creates Month.
There will be music, performances, artistic activations, games, and so much more to kick-off a month of recognizing the creatives who make DC the most vibrant city in the world! It’s all going down Thursday, September 1, 2022 on the District Pier at The Wharf from 6pm to 10pm, with a 202Creates Pop-Up lounge at LaVie starting at 8pm. Hope to see you there!
RSVP at 202createsmonth.com
The Mayor’s Arts Awards are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, arts educators, nonprofit organizations, the creative community, and patrons of the arts. The Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment (OCTFME), in conjunction with the DC Creative Affairs Office, will produce the 37th Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards. Artists and organizations will be recognized across fourteen categories, celebrating everything from visual arts, fashion, and beauty to the humanities.
Meet us September 13, 2022, for Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents The 37th Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards happening at Capitol Turnaround. This year's show is hosted by Britt Waters and co-hosted by Sylvia Traymore Morrison.
RSVP at DCMayorsArtsAwards.com
Join us to celebrate a musical legend that took the spirit and culture of DC across the world. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket and enjoy a full afternoon of FREE entertainment as we celebrate and remember Chuck Brown at the 8th Annual Chuck Brown Day at Chuck Brown Park on August 20, 2022.
Join UCB, Rare Essence, Doug E Fresh, and of course, the Chuck Brown Band. If you Love DC and CHUCK BROWN this is the place to be. Food trucks on site, a kids activities area, and The Chuck Brown Foundation will provide free backpacks for the kids (Backpack giveaway starts at 1pm!).
Limited free parking on the field at 24th and Franklin St NE.
For more information click here.
The DC Creative Affairs Office's Care for Creatives Community Conversations series continues to support mental wellness in the District's creative community.
Join Dr. Mary DeRaedt, PhD, LPC, The George Washington University and EZ Street, Academy DC Founder & Media Personality for a lively conversation about the benefits of play. Learn how play can help us relieve stress, boost creativity, and develop and improve social skills.
Learn more at CreativeAffairsDC.com.
We are proud to announce that DC Radio 96.3HD4's own Maxx Myrick will receive the 2022 Radio & Record's Lifetime Achievement Award.
The 2022 Radio & Records Awards Ceremony recognizes and honors Radio and Music Professionals as well as Community Leaders past and present for their contributions and many years dedicated to the Radio, Music, and the Community as a whole.
Congratulations Maxx!
DC Radio will air a special edition of the popular Artimacy Podcast featuring Radio Ink Award-winning host K. Charles aka Keanna Fairchild. The interview with Kimberly Frazier, soundtrack producer of the Jason Henderson film "Home Health Chronicles," is a Semi-Finalist in the Washington, DC International Cinema Festival 2022.
The show airs on August 27, 2022, at 8pm on DC Radio 96.3HD4, DCRADIO.GOV on the DC Radio app for iPhone and Android, Tunein.com and all major on demand platforms.
"The Home Health Chronicles" soundtrack is available on YouTube.
We are excited to present two new series coming this month. Join Director Angie M. Gates for a 'Conversation with Virginia Ali' premiering August 19th 2022 on DCN. In celebration of musician Chuck Brown's impact on music and the city tune in to 'Straight Crankin'; A Go Go Miniseries' on DCE. Watch these and other programming on the networks.
‘Conversation with Virginia Ali’
From a farm in Loretto, Virginia, to matriarch of the Ben’s Chili Bowl family in the Nation’s Capital, Virginia Ali speaks candidly about her life as a soft spoken and savvy business woman; the business she built with husband Ben and now with her children, and their historic journey on the U Street corridor and beyond.
‘Straight Crankin’; A Go Go Miniseries’
Spreading Washington DC’s native beat to a global audience, OCTFME shares stories and reflections from a multitude of stakeholders in the Go Go community in this locally produced miniseries. Discover the evolution of Go Go, the bands, their styles, its history and impact over the past 40 years in this ‘don’t want to miss’ original program series.
The NAACP ACT-SO (Afro Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics) Competition is a year-round enrichment program for African American high school students grades nine to twelve. The goal of ACT-SO is to encourage scholastic excellence and opportunity, mentorship, and exposure for African American students.
ACT-SO boasts 33 category areas including STEM, Humanities, Performing and Visual Arts, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Design, and the Culinary Arts. This year, the Washington DC ACT-SO Program returned to an in-person competition after being remote for 2 years. This local competition was held on April 30, 2022 at Catholic University. The local gold medal winners traveled to the national competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey to compete for scholarships. We are proud to announce 6 gold medalists in the following categories:
Malik Brooks (12th)-Dance Modern
Taylor Freeman (9th)-Photography & Poetry Written
Mudiwa Hargrove (9th)-Dance Traditional
Sanaa Liggans (12th)-Film
Arden Thompson (11th)-Drawing & Painting
Ja'Kyah Vaughns (10th) Dance Contemporary
This year, team DC did not disappoint bringing home two national medals! Ja’Kyah Vaughns, a rising Junior studying at the VIVA School of Dance in Washington DC, won a gold medal in dance contemporary. Sanaa Liggans, a recent graduate who will attend Stevenson University in the fall, won a silver medal for her film entitled “Futures Through the Eyes of Black Youth.” During a surprise presentation, Sanaa was awarded the inaugural Lancome Write HER Future Scholarship featuring a guest appearance by Lancome ambassador and acclaimed actress, Lupita Nyong’o.
To learn more about the Washington DC ACT-SO program and get involved follow them on instagram or email actso.naacpdc@gmail.com.
The #EntertainDC Office is pleased to recognize Reginald "Reggie" David Grier Jr. as the OCTFME August 2022 Filmmaker of the Month (FOTM).
OCTFME is proud to acknowledge the work and contributions of location manager and production coordinator Reginald "Reggie" David Grier Jr.
Reginald "Reggie" David Grier, Jr. is a film and television production location manager, production coordinator, producer, writer, audio engineer and IT professional. Reggie’s early exposure to technology sparked his passion for the technical side of all creative arts and afforded him many opportunities to build and maintain a dynamic, successful career in audio-visual consulting, music engineering/deejaying, and film/TV production.
In 2005, Reggie founded RDG Multimedia Entertainment LLC as a music recording and media production company. RDG services also included technical support for special events, deejay services, IT services, and audio- visual A/V engineering. In 2013, a chance encounter with a film and television producer at a party that Reggie deejayed turned into an opportunity to be a production assistant on a film production in the “location management” department. This opportunity grew into a professional passion, and Reggie soon rose up the ranks to the management level.
Reggie continues to work as a locations manager specialist, producer, and writer in the local media production industry. He has worked on such varied productions as HBO’s “House of Cards ” (2015-17); Megamind Media’s “Born in the Game ” (2017); Warner Bros.' “Wonder Woman 1984 ” (2018); Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale " (2018); Sony Pictures’ “A Journal for Jordan" (2021); as well as HBO projects “White House Plumbers " and “We Own this City" to name a few.
"I'm thankful for OCTFME's recognition as Filmmaker of the Month! "It is a beautiful feeling to be recognized for my efforts by the city that birthed and raised me." says Grier "Locations is where you get to work with all of the decision-makers, use your logic and creativity, as well,” Grier continues. “Working in location management also offers you an opportunity to find all of the cool places in your own backyard that can be used as backdrops for media productions. "
Connect with Reggie on Instagram to learn more about his work.
Congratulations Reggie!
The #EntertainDC Office is pleased to recognize Whitfield Entertainment Studios Group (WEG Studios) as the OCTFME August 2022 Location of the Month (LOTM).
Whitfield Entertainment Group Studios (“WEG Studios”), located at the site of the former BET Networks production campus in the Brentwood neighborhood of NE Washington, DC comprises over 92,000 square feet across two main buildings. WEG Studios' 57,000 square foot, dual-level main facility is highlighted by a cavernous 17,000 square foot acoustically treated sound stage and is the perfect rental setting for media productions, special events, concerts, or corporate gatherings. The location also features a second two-level facility with over 35,000 square feet of production space, offices, photography space and on- site parking for hundreds.
The establishment of this restored and revitalized soundstage campus, centrally located in the heart of the Nation’s Capital, offers a dynamic, versatile, state-of-the-art space for film, television, animation, special event, and music performance venue.
“The Whitfield Entertainment Group Studio is honored to be featured as the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment’s Location of the Month,” said Whitfield Entertainment Group COO & Chairman of the Board Maria Murphy. “The team at the Whitfield Entertainment Group is extremely excited about the opportunity to provide a top-notch entertainment location and venue to the District of Columbia.”
For more information and to inquire about booking contact info@wegstudios.com or call 202-220-8999.
The Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment is the regulatory agency that protects and advances the cable service-related interests of the District. At the #EntertainDC Office, our dedicated team is proud to consistently deliver world-class customer service in all aspects of our work. We readily supply information to meet the diverse needs of each constituent and make every effort to educate and inform. If you are a cable television customer, you have rights concerning billing practices, late charges, rate increases, disconnection or service interruption, and dispute resolution procedures. The #EntertainDC Office is here to assist.
Any questions? Ask MARCELLA!
Our mission is to produce and broadcast programming for the District of Columbia’s public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable channels and digital radio station; regulate the District of Columbia’s cable television service providers; provide customer service for cable subscribers; and support a sustainable creative economy and labor market the District of Columbia.
