PROjects
(Un)Lock It: the Percussive People in the Go-Go Pocket
by Thomas Sayers Ellis
Opening Reception August 5, 2011 from 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates August 5 - October 7
Go-Go is a non-stop, vernacular dance music unique to Washington, D.C. and the Pocket is the percussive conversation between or beneath Go-Go grooves and songs. This photography project takes its title from a term ”Lock It” used by the Go-Go community to describe a perfectly played (or locked) Go-Go Pocket. The goal of the Pocket is Home Rule and its anthem is “Bustin’ Loose,” Chuck Brown’s classic call for ‘The Bridge.” In a city as Capital as Washington, this work is a percussive attempt to reclaim the pictorial power of photography for D.C residents, the folk who (as Walt Whitman once wrote) “do the real living and dying in this land.”
The Gallery at Vivid Solutions
2208 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE
Washington DC 20020
202.365.8392
www.vividsolutionsdc.com
The Go-Go Book: People in the Pocket in WDC
The History of Go-Go and Black Folk Culture in Washington, D.C.
Photographs by Thomas Sayers Ellis : The Go-Go Book
Washington D.C. Poetry Tour
Visit the D.C. Poetry Tour at the Poetry Foundation.
Narrated by Elizabeth Alexander, photographs by Thomas Sayers Ellis : Washington D.C. Poetry Tour
Postcards in the Pocket
Postcards in the Pocket: A Set of 16 Go-Go Photographs” by Thomas Sayers Ellis is now available! Time to Play Your Part! Put a stamp on it and help Go-Go go national! Buy, Send, Collect this rare limited edition. Order yours today at Tuesday; An Art Project Visit.
Also visit
10 Rules for Changing the Game by Thomas Sayers Ellis