WPFW’s 2nd Annual Jazz and Justice Festival
What the day is
The best free afternoon in DC this fall.
Sunday, September 27, 2026 · Noon to 7 PM · Malcolm X Park, 16th & W Street NW · Free, all ages
WPFW 89.3 FM turns the hill into the sound of Jazz and Justice Radio for seven hours. Edwin Ortiz y La Mafia Del Guaguanco, Brandon Woody, MuMu Fresh, Proverbs Reggae Band and Be’la Dona. Live, outdoors, and free.
Salsa that pulls the whole lawn to its feet. A Blue Note trumpeter who never left Baltimore. A Grammy-nominated voice. Roots reggae under a message. And go-go to close it out. Between the sets, WPFW programmers and District organizers take the mic. Across 15th Street at the Josephine Butler Parks Center, documentary films and community discussions run from one o’clock until seven, alongside an elders circle, yoga, and art.
Bring a blanket. Bring your people. Bring somebody who has never heard 89.3.
Two milestones, one Sunday. This is the park’s 90th anniversary weekend, and WPFW turns 50 on February 28, 2027.
Music you can’t hear anywhere else that day
Salsa dura, modern jazz, roots reggae and go-go. Five bands who don’t usually share a bill.
Organizing you can actually join
Free DC and other local groups on the field with tents, sign-ups and people to talk to.
Film and conversation, indoors
Six hours of community discussions and documentary screenings at the Josephine Butler Parks Center.
It costs nothing
No ticket, no minimum, no catch. Listener support has covered it for 49 years.
The lineup
Hear them before you come.
Five bands, in the order they play. Press play on any of them.
Edwin Ortiz & La Mafia Del Guaguanco
Salsa orchestra · Germantown, MD
This is when the lawn turns into a dance floor.
Thirty years and a full orchestra: complete horn section, complete percussion section, classic 1970s salsa dura running straight into contemporary material, sung in Spanish and English with Vivian Mojica out front. Widely called the best salsa band in the Washington region.
They’ve backed Jerry Rivera and Lalo Rodríguez, and shared stages with El Gran Combo and Oscar D’León. The guaguancó in the name is a promise. Wear shoes you can move in.
Follow the band More live videoBrandon Woody
Trumpet · Baltimore, MD
A Blue Note trumpeter, in a public park, for nothing.
Blue Note Records signed Woody in November 2024 and put out his first album, For The Love Of It All, in May 2025. He built the whole career without leaving Baltimore, and you can hear that decision in the music.
His band Upendo is Troy Long on keys, Quincy Phillips on drums and Michael Saunders on bass. Jazz, gospel and improvisation played as one thing, with a tone that goes from gentle to swaggering inside a phrase. Between tours he teaches young players, which tells you what he thinks the music is for.
Blue Note profile More musicMuMu Fresh
Maimouna Youssef · Baltimore, MD
Half an hour, and she will use every minute of it.
She sings and she rhymes and she refuses to pick one. A MuMu Fresh set travels from a whisper to a full-throated demand and back inside a single verse, and the crowd goes with her every time. Her Afro-Native heritage runs straight through the work, and so does the organizing.
Grammy-nominated. Stages shared with Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo, Nas and Common. Carnegie Hall and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Black Thought of The Roots calls her a quadruple threat. Free, on a Sunday, in a public park.
Official site Listen: Peace Will ComeProverbs Reggae Band
Roots reggae · Bowie, MD
One drop, under a message.
Roots reggae and lover’s rock since 2000, independent the entire time, with calypso and soca folded in. If you’ve been to Joe’s Movement Emporium, the Carter Barron or the National Cannabis Festival, you’ve already heard them.
They call what they do uplifting Rasta livity, and they’ll tell you they’re the DC area’s one true roots reggae band. Nobody around here argues.
Official site More musicBe’la Dona
Go-go · Washington, DC
The last hour belongs to go-go, and to DC.
Go-go is Washington’s own music, and Be’la Dona is the all-woman band that carries it. They call what they play sensual crank, and they move through rock, R&B, gospel, pop and jazz without ever losing the pocket.
The Smithsonian has filmed them. The Kennedy Center books them. They get the last hour on the hill, which is the correct decision. Save something for it, because at a go-go the crowd is part of the band and they will call you into it.
Kennedy Center profileVoices on the mic
The people you hear all week, out from behind the glass.
Between every set, WPFW programmers take the stage. These are the hosts whose shows carry the justice half of Jazz and Justice the other six days of the week. Most of them are running a session at the Butler Center as well.
Dr. Julianne Malveaux
MALVEAUX!Mondays, 9 AM
Economist, author and college president. Economics, race and public policy, plainly put.
Main stage, 1:00 PM
Rev. Mark Thompson
Make It PlainMondays, 11 AM
Straight-talk politics and movement news, carried nationally beyond 89.3.
Main stage, 2:20 PM
Ambrose Lane Jr.
To The EastMondays, 5 PM
Black politics, culture and community power, in conversation.
Main stage, 3:40 PM · Butler Center, 1:00 PM
Esther Iverem
On The GroundFridays, 10 AM
Voices of resistance from the ground up, carried nationally.
Main stage, 2:20 PM · Butler Center, 2:00 PM
Jacqueline Luqman
Darker Than BlueFridays, 5 PM
Left analysis of politics, media and empire.
Main stage, 5:40 PM
Netfa Freeman
Voices With VisionTuesdays, 9 AM
With Craig Hall. To enlighten minds, uplift spirits and strengthen souls.
Main stage, 4:30 PM · Butler Center, 5:00 PM
New World Order
New World OrderWednesdays, 6 PM
Mahjai, Ama’d, Liv Grace and Trélogy. Younger voices on culture, politics and what comes next.
Main stage, 4:30 PM · Butler Center, 3:00 PM
Rev. Watkins
Leading one of the afternoon community discussions across the street.
Main stage, 1:00 PM · Butler Center, 4:00 PM
On the decks
DJ Underdog
Black Star RadioMondays, 10 PM
Africa, the Caribbean and the wider Black diaspora on the decks.
Opens the day, 11:30 AM
Noodles & DJ Kandy Krush
Spinning between the speakers and the first band.
Main stage, 1:10 PM
Candy Shannon
Morning Brew: Jazz EditionFridays, 5 AM
Friday morning jazz from a DC radio pioneer, on the air here since 1998.
On the grounds
Tony Carr
This Is Reggae MusicSundays, 10 PM
Roots reggae, dub and the deep sounds of Jamaica.
On the grounds
DJ Rita Burns
Meeting in the Ladies RoomFridays, 10 PM
With DJ Abby and DJ Housecat. The station’s first women’s DJ collective.
On the grounds
Kim Bey
Kulcha ShakSaturdays, 4 PM
With DJ Zee-Lion. Reggae and Caribbean culture from an award-winning musician.
Introduces Proverbs, 4:35 PM
The hill itself
Whose hill this is.
Before any of it was a park, this was the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank — whose village on the river gave Anacostia its name — and of the Piscataway and Pamunkey peoples, who have stewarded this region for generations. More than four thousand Native people live in Washington today. The festival opens with an Indigenous land recognition at 12:10, and it is not a formality. It is the first accurate thing anyone can say about where we are standing.
A school for the newly free
In 1865, the year the Civil War ended, the American Baptist Home Mission Society founded Wayland Seminary to educate people who had just been freed from slavery. Its building opened in 1875 on this hill and stood until around 1900. Booker T. Washington studied there. So did Adam Clayton Powell Sr.
The park was built over that ground. Twenty-one years of construction, thirteen acres of terraces and a long cascading fountain, finished in 1936. It opened to the public on September 26, 1936, which makes this weekend its ninetieth anniversary, almost to the day.
Why we call it Malcolm X Park
Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965. Not long after, drummers began gathering on this hill to mark it. That circle never stopped. It still meets every Sunday afternoon, and it opens this festival at 12:30. Sixty years of drums, unbroken, for one man.
Through the 1960s the hill was ground zero for Black organizing in the District, partly because the Pitts Motor Hotel stood nearby and was where Black activists passing through town could actually get a room. In 1969, scholar and activist Angela Davis is widely credited as the first to call publicly for the park to carry Malcolm X’s name. In 1970, Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. — son of the Wayland Seminary graduate — introduced a bill in Congress to make it official.
The bill failed. A technicality has blocked it ever since: a presidential memorial sits inside the park, and federal rules do not allow a park holding one to be named for anyone else.
So it never happened on paper, and it happened anyway. The name people use is the name the community chose. We use it too.
What this hill has held
The city’s grief in April 1968. Anti-war rallies through Vietnam. Anti-apartheid demonstrations. Black nationalist gatherings into the 1980s. By 1990 the park had largely been written off, until neighbors organized volunteer patrols and programming and cut crime here by 82 percent in two years. That group became Washington Parks & People, whose Steve Coleman opens our broadcast at noon.
A festival called Jazz and Justice belongs on this particular grass. That is the whole reason we are here and not somewhere easier.
1865
Wayland Seminary founded to educate the newly freed. Its building stood on this hill from 1875.
1936
The park opens to the public on September 26, after twenty-one years of construction.
1965
Drummers gather to mourn Malcolm X. The circle has met on Sundays ever since.
1969
Angela Davis calls for the park to carry his name. The community has called it that ever since.
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Noon to seven. Two venues. One block.
Main stage, Malcolm X Park
Gates open
DJ Underdog opens the day while the hill fills up.
Broadcast begins
WPFW goes live from the park with Shayna Lonoaea and Miyuki Williams. Welcome from Steve Coleman of Washington Parks & People, followed by an Indigenous land recognition.
Drummers and dancers
The Sunday circle has met on this hill since 1965. This is where the day starts.
On the mic
Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Rev. Watkins and Free DC. Music from Noodles & DJ Kandy Krush between sets.
Edwin Ortiz & La Mafia Del Guaguanco
Full salsa orchestra. The dance floor is the whole lawn.
On the mic
Rev. Thompson and Esther Iverem.
Brandon Woody
Blue Note’s Baltimore trumpeter with his band Upendo.
On the mic
Ambrose Lane.
MuMu Fresh
Grammy-nominated vocals and emcee work, from Baltimore by way of everywhere.
On the mic
New World Order and Netfa Freeman.
Proverbs Reggae Band
Roots reggae and lover’s rock, a one drop under a message.
On the mic
Jacqueline Luqman.
Be’la Dona
Go-go closes the festival. DC’s all-woman band takes the last hour.
End of event
Community discussions, Josephine Butler Parks Center
Ambrose Lane
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
Esther Iverem
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
New World Order
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
Rev. Watkins
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
Netfa Freeman
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
To be announced
One hour, Room 1. Open seating and questions from the floor.
Documentary screenings, Josephine Butler Parks Center
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible
Two hours, with discussion after.
Malcolm X Park documentary
The hill you are standing on, on film.
Screenings continue
Three more slots through seven o’clock. Titles announced closer to the date.
Elders circle
Three o’clock at the Butler Center with Baba Sengore Baye.
Meditation and yoga
Running all day with Mama Paulette.
Art on display
Art of Noize, curated by Adrian Ferguson, at the Butler Center from eleven.
Poets on the mic
A. B. Spellman, Brian Gilmore and Roscoe Burnems.
WPFW programmers
DJ Rita Burns, Noodles & DJ Kandy Krush, Candy Shannon, Tony Carr and DJ Underdog.
Food and vendors
Food trucks and makers from across the District, open from noon.
Organizing tents
Free DC, Sitar Arts Center and CapitalBop on the field.
Live broadcast booth
Watch us put the festival on the air, and say something into the mic yourself.
This schedule is a draft. Final times are posted here and announced on 89.3 FM the week of the festival.
Coming, and helping
Admission is free. Somebody still paid for it.
There is no ticket, no RSVP and no list. Show up on the hill and find a patch of grass. This is a public park and a listener-supported station, and the day is free because 49 years of listener support already made it free.
If it turns out to be worth something to you, this is how it keeps happening.
See you there
Nothing to book and nothing to bring but a blanket. Gates at 11:30, music until seven, all ages, rain or shine.
Add it to your calendarBecome a member
Twenty-five dollars is the threshold for WPFW membership, and it runs a full year. It is the most common way people start supporting the station.
Give $25Salute the signal
89.3 on your dial. People give this amount because it is easy to remember and it says what it means.
Give $89.30Carry an hour
For listeners who want to take on a larger share of what a day like this costs to put on.
Give $250 or moreAlready a sustainer?
You are already carrying this. Come by the members’ tent and say hello.
Bringing a group?
No headcount needed. If you want a tent on the field, email us and we will make room.
What to bring
A blanket or a low chair, water, sunscreen, and cash for the vendors.
Can’t make the hill?
The whole festival airs live on 89.3 FM and streams at wpfwdc.org.
Five bands. Seven hours. Zero dollars.
September 27, on the hill at 16th and W. Nothing to book. Put it in your calendar, then send this to the one person you already know would love it.
See the schedule Support WPFWPartners
Built with the people already doing the work.
Free DC
District-wide organizing for self-determination and local democracy. On the field with a tent and a slot on the main stage.
National Park Service
Steward of Malcolm X Park since 1933 and partner in marking its 90th year.
Josephine Butler Parks Center
Host venue for the films, the discussions, the elders circle and the art.
Washington Parks & People
Steve Coleman opens the broadcast at noon. Longtime stewards of the District’s public green space.
Sitar Arts Center
Arts education in Adams Morgan, on the field with a tent.
CapitalBop
DC’s jazz journal and presenter, and a partner in the music.
WPFW Local Station Board
Outreach and Development committees, staffing the welcome and membership tents.
Contact and getting there
Questions? Call the station.
- Festival questions
- miyuki@wpfw.org
- Vendors, tents and partner organizations
- miyuki@wpfw.org — subject line: Festival tent
- Studio line
- 202-588-0893
- Pledge line
- 202-588-9739
- Station
- WPFW 89.3 FM · 1500 Eckington Place NE, Washington, DC 20002
- Festival site
- Malcolm X Park
16th & W Street NW, Washington, DC - Getting there
- Metro to U Street / African-American Civil War Memorial / Cardozo on the Green and Yellow lines, then a short walk. Street parking is limited on Sundays, so transit or rideshare is the easier call.
- Listen live
- 89.3 FM in Washington, DC, streaming at wpfwdc.org