April is Jazz Appreciation Month, but this year, we’re moving beyond appreciation. At CapitalBop we’re inviting you to get activated and help us continue this ever-vital work to preserve, promote and present jazz in D.C.

Our city is facing a vacuum of local, cultural journalism, with outlets like the Washington Post gutting their local reporting. Where other outlets have bowed out, we’re doubling down. CapitalBop has spent the past 16 years promoting jazz and culture in our city and connecting our community to the music that keeps the heartbeat of our city alive.

The Trump administration’s culture war has put arts institutions in the nation’s capital in the crosshairs. Jazz Appreciation Month was founded 25 years ago, right here, at the Smithsonian. Today we no longer have the rich jazz programming that we once thought we could count on at the Smithsonian or the Kennedy Center.

Cultural erasure has become one of the administration’s main goals, which means CapitalBop’s work to preserve jazz and its culture is more important than ever. Our calendar keeps audiences informed about where you can continue to hear the music live. We’re preserving and passing on the jazz tradition through our archival work, with written and video journalism and our recently published “D.C. Jazz History” page written by Dr. Maurice Jackson. And we’re building programs and institutions of our own that will keep jazz going strong in D.C.: community festivals like the Home Rule Music Festival and Jazz in the Heights, and our unique, weekly youth music education program at the Riverside Center in Ward 7, Marvin’s Place, which brings the music directly into the community. All of the above are offered free of charge, to all audiences and attendees.

Since the inception of CapitalBop 16 years ago, the community of artists in D.C. has always been at the forefront of our mission — and our own operations. We’ve never stopped uplifting and presenting the rich artistry of jazz musicians in D.C. through our shows, festivals and video programs, even as the landscape of our city has changed, and many histories have been threatened with erasure.

That’s why this Jazz Appreciation Month, we’re inviting you to be a part of maintaining what makes our city special. By presenting, promoting, and preserving the arts, we’re actively shaping the future of jazz in the capital—that’s not just appreciation, it’s support.

To keep the beat going in the capital, despite the constant attacks on the arts, we’re aiming to raise $10,000 in order to fund CapitalBop’s programs that present, promote and preserve this music in D.C.

Will you make a contribution this April to ensure we have what it takes to preserve and propel D.C.’s jazz culture into the future?

It’s jazz support month at CapitalBop! Help us present, promote and preserve what makes D.C. special

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