Sayers Ellis is a poet, photographer and assistant professor of writing at Sarah Lawrence College. His photo exhibit, (Un)Lock It: the Percussive People in the Go-Go Pocket, opened Friday at the Gallery at Vivid Solutions. Its subject, go-go music, is a genre unique to D.C. Can you tell us a little bit about go-go music?
The name go-go means that it is an action and a music that continues, that keeps going. And it keeps going, does not stop, because in the mid-’70s, Chuck Brown playing cabarets and clubs and shows called go-gos and D.C. was looking for a way to bridge cover songs or a way to prevent people from sitting down between songs. So he bridged songs with percussion interludes and worked his way back into songs with grooves by vamping on the melody, by easing into the song like we do in church. … This is a vernacular music with cowbells, horns, tambourines, jazz and funk riffs, call and response.
Why isn’t it popular anywhere else?
I don’t think there’s a whole lot of respect and open door for the black cultural expression of poor D.C. folks, especially in a genre whose strength is live performance. Go-go was born and raised in Washington, D.C. It is more Washington than any senator, Capitol Hill intern or U.S. president — black or white.
When did you get interested in go-go music?
I’m a native Washingtonian. Go-go is in the air, it’s one of the cultural things that happens, naturally. I heard the Soul Searchers first at the Masonic Temple, 1979.
Are there any unique challenges to photographing go-go concerts?
There are many challenges: getting to shows. Go-go is mostly played in Prince George’s County. D.C. evicted it. Protecting my equipment while I am there, because go-go is physical and crowded and often dark. There have been many times that I have dropped my camera after being bumped or “ruffed off” in the Junkyard Band pit.
— Betsy Woodruff
