On Sept. 22, the sun shined on the open wood-floor reception area of the Sycamore & Oak venue in Congress Heights. Blown-up balloons of vibrant pink, orange, purple and green surrounded a baby-blue backdrop that welcomed guests. Walking through the arched entryway into the main event space, they were greeted by the smell of food from the free buffet as music played lightly from speakers on stage. White-clothed tables ornamented with floral centerpieces decked the floor, leaving a wide space for dancing.
People came to Sycamore & Oak and danced to music from the Hip-Hop, Soul, Go-Go fusion band FutureBandDC and Cuban-style artists La Reyna y La Real and MACHIRAN. This event was the closing ceremony celebrating the end of Walking Town D.C.’s 25th year. Walking Town is hosted annually by EventsDC and gives tours across Washington’s eight wards to celebrate the unique history of each ward. This year, Walking Town had 64 tours in English, Spanish and French lasting from Sept. 14-22.
Local volunteer historians and tour guides have led the tours since 1999, giving insights into local Washington history. Most guides are independent or work with tour companies outside of Walking Town and are then recruited by Walking Town for a once-a-year gig.
Independent historian and author Kaitlin Calogera gave the tour “Black Feminist D.C.” She said touring Washington’s local neighborhoods provides a nuanced understanding of what is missing from the well-known history of the United States reflected in the National Mall.
“By telling these niche histories, we’re filling in the gaps of a larger American story,” Calogera said.
Calogera, founder and owner of “A Tour of Her Own,” a tour company that focuses exclusively on women’s history, is independent of Walking Town but has partnered with it for the last three years. She said one of their main goals is to connect with the wider Washington community.
“I think it’s important to show the nuanced side of Washington, D.C., its unique neighborhoods and niche topics that tourists aren’t particularly interested in, but our neighbors are,” Calogera said.
For the past 25 years, Walking Town tours have highlighted a variety of community histories specific to Washington. This year, some focused on communities of people. “Downtown Jewish Washington: A Changing Landscape” centered on the Seventh Street, NW neighborhood that was once home to prominent Jewish commercial and religious groups. “Philippine-American Heritage in Washington, D.C.” featured Philippine-American history and culture in the metro Washington area. “Women of Cold War Washington” looked at women who played powerful roles in Cold War Washington.
Others featured location-based history. “Queering Capitol Hill” emphasized Capitol Hill’s 70-year legacy as a residential and social hub for Washington’s LGBTQ+ residents. “Brookland Then and Now” traced the neighborhood through its five distinctive historical periods: the Native American Woodlands Period, Washington County, the Civil War Era, Trolley Car Suburb and ending with its current state as the City Neighborhood. “The History of Shaw and U Street NW” highlighted iconic sites of the area and their respective stories such as the African American Civil War Memorial, Howard Theatre and Ben’s Chili Bowl.
At the Art Museum of the Americas, museum Director and Curator Adriana Ospina held the “Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present” tour. The museum showed an exhibition of the same name until Oct. 20. On a Sept. 14 tour, Ospina walked through the exhibit’s 40 mixed-media and installation artworks, providing backstory to the collection by Afro-Cuban artist Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy.
Carolina Lopez, a Cuban-American attendee of the tour visiting from California, said that it gave her more context for the exhibit and the artist’s intention behind his pieces that she wouldn’t have known if she explored the museum by herself.
“There’s parts of it that I didn’t recognize or didn’t pick up on,” Lopez said.
Beyond the representation Lopez found in Diago’s artwork, Walking Town tours have focused on involving local communities in their own histories, said Brea Goven, the Events D.C. senior community engagement manager. Goven, who is also an American University alumna, said each neighborhood has a story to tell, and Walking Town is meant to engage the communities in a way that encourages care for those stories.
“A lot of the community is not aware of Walking Town, especially our community east of the river, and so getting them to be aware of the history that they live in and walk by every day is one of the greatest goals that we have,” Goven said.
Dania Jolly, the deputy chief of staff and cultural affairs at Events D.C., manages the Walking Town team. To engage with local residents this year, team members added extra summer tours before the main group of tours in September and promoted Walking Town in local newspapers and bus shelters. Jolly said the promotion has led to an increase in attendance.
“I would say the significance of Walking Town is just amplifying Washington, D.C. culture, right?” Jolly said. “It is putting a lens on those neighborhoods, landmarks, artists, culinary, cultural folks, programs, putting a lens on them that they may not get otherwise, right?”
This article was originally published in Issue 35 of AWOL’s magazine on November 19, 2024. You can see the rest of the issue here.
