You’re worried about the next president. I’m here to change the subject. But only a little.
That next U.S. president, looking out at Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day Jan. 20, will see a different city from the one that President Obama saw in January 2009. The nation’s capital is wealthier, safer, livelier, tastier, more populous and more ready for tourists than it has been in decades.
What’s that, you say? The Metro still stinks. Well, yes, but Metro officials did install a new top executive late last year.
It’s a remarkable cityscape, thanks to a diversifying local economy, redevelopment and an influx of millennials who like living downtown without cars. In September I set out to explore seven new or changed places.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
On Sept. 24, after decades of talk about a Washington museum focusing on black Americans, the Smithsonian Institution at last cut the ribbon on one.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, designed by David Adjaye, now stands on the National Mall, a bronze beauty on a greensward long dominated by gray stone.
Its jagged walls are inspired by three-tiered Yoruban crowns. The coated aluminum latticework echoes the 19th century ironwork of black artisans in the American South. And I’m betting that the problems I saw in the museum’s first week — long lines, balky escalators, missing maps — will be rapidly solved.
What matters most is the journey inside, starting on the bottom floors with slavery’s beginnings. It’s haunting to stand in a darkened gallery, looking at shackles and slave-ship hardware, hearing ocean waves. It was doubly powerful during the museum’s first days, when visitors, mostly African Americans, crowded into every gallery determined to see everything.
Advancing through history, you pass a slave cabin from South Carolina, a Klansman’s hood, civil rights-era artifacts. You see and hear black performers and read of struggle, strength and genius in politics, business, science and the arts.
You can see Harriet Tubman’s silk shawl (a gift from Queen Victoria), Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, James Baldwin’s passport, Michael Jackson’s fedora, a statue of 1968 Olympian medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos, their fists raised in a Black Power salute; and a Barack Obama 2008 campaign button. I was startled to learn that only about 3,500 artifacts are on display. It seems like more — in a good way.
Info: 1400 Constitution Ave. N.W.; (844) 750-3012, nmaahc.si.edu. Free admission; reservations accepted for timed entrance tickets. Limited number of same-day tickets.
That next U.S. president, looking out at Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day Jan. 20, will see a different city from the one that President Obama saw in January 2009. The nation’s capital is wealthier, safer, livelier, tastier, more populous and more ready for tourists than it has been in decades.
What’s that, you say? The Metro still stinks. Well, yes, but Metro officials did install a new top executive late last year.
It’s a remarkable cityscape, thanks to a diversifying local economy, redevelopment and an influx of millennials who like living downtown without cars. In September I set out to explore seven new or changed places.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
On Sept. 24, after decades of talk about a Washington museum focusing on black Americans, the Smithsonian Institution at last cut the ribbon on one.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, designed by David Adjaye, now stands on the National Mall, a bronze beauty on a greensward long dominated by gray stone.
Its jagged walls are inspired by three-tiered Yoruban crowns. The coated aluminum latticework echoes the 19th century ironwork of black artisans in the American South. And I’m betting that the problems I saw in the museum’s first week — long lines, balky escalators, missing maps — will be rapidly solved.
What matters most is the journey inside, starting on the bottom floors with slavery’s beginnings. It’s haunting to stand in a darkened gallery, looking at shackles and slave-ship hardware, hearing ocean waves. It was doubly powerful during the museum’s first days, when visitors, mostly African Americans, crowded into every gallery determined to see everything.
Advancing through history, you pass a slave cabin from South Carolina, a Klansman’s hood, civil rights-era artifacts. You see and hear black performers and read of struggle, strength and genius in politics, business, science and the arts.
You can see Harriet Tubman’s silk shawl (a gift from Queen Victoria), Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, James Baldwin’s passport, Michael Jackson’s fedora, a statue of 1968 Olympian medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos, their fists raised in a Black Power salute; and a Barack Obama 2008 campaign button. I was startled to learn that only about 3,500 artifacts are on display. It seems like more — in a good way.
Info: 1400 Constitution Ave. N.W.; (844) 750-3012, nmaahc.si.edu. Free admission; reservations accepted for timed entrance tickets. Limited number of same-day tickets.
