20 Years of Black Excellence: How One Children's Charity Is Changing Young Lives
A top children's charity marks 20 years of celebrating Black youth excellence — and DC's own ecosystem of Black joy and youth empowerment is paying attention.
In brief
For 20 years, a top children's charity has honored young Black achievers — amplifying their stories at a time when those stories are most needed. The anniversary marks not just an institutional milestone, but a cultural mandate: that Black excellence in youth deserves celebration, investment, and replication. In Washington DC, that mandate is already being answered.
⚡ KEY TAKEAWAYS
A premier children's charity celebrates 20 years of formally recognizing Black youth excellence across academic, artistic, and civic achievement.
The anniversary reflects a broader global movement to institutionalize Black joy — one that Washington DC is actively mirroring through its own youth programs.
DC organizations from Anacostia to Columbia Heights are building recognition infrastructure that honors young Black residents by name, not just by statistic.
Howard University's legacy and DC's HBCU ecosystem provide a natural backbone for expanding youth excellence pipelines in the nation's capital.
Black-led nonprofits and community anchors in DC are increasingly positioning recognition — not just resources — as a core equity strategy.
Two Decades of Honoring Black Youth — Why the Anniversary Matters Now
Twenty years is a generation. The children honored in year one of this charity's recognition program are now adults — some of them, undoubtedly, building the next wave of institutions that will honor the children who come after them. That generational arc is the point. The Voice Online, the UK's leading Black newspaper, spotlighted the charity's two-decade milestone as a cultural landmark, not merely a nonprofit anniversary.
The numbers tell part of the story. Over 20 years, programs like this reach thousands of young people — offering visibility that many public school systems, underfunded and overstretched, cannot provide. Recognition, research increasingly confirms, functions as an intervention. A young person who sees themselves celebrated publicly is more likely to persist, to lead, and to give back. That's not soft sociology — that's documented by the American Psychological Association in its research on youth resilience and identity affirmation.
In Washington DC, this principle is already embedded in the city's most effective youth programs. From the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown to the Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Deanwood, the capital has built institutions that say to Black young people: your brilliance is expected here, and we will name it out loud.
Washington DC's Own Architecture of Black Youth Excellence
DC operates as a living laboratory for this work. The city is majority-minority, politically conscious, and home to one of the most educated Black professional classes in the country. That combination creates conditions where youth excellence programs don't just survive — they scale.
Ward 8, historically underrepresented in legacy civic recognition, has seen a surge in community-driven youth programming since 2022. Organizations like Children's Law Center, headquartered in DC, and the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative in Columbia Heights, have spent years building the scaffolding that makes formal recognition possible: mentorship, academic support, and community accountability.
Howard University — the capstone of DC's HBCU identity — remains the city's most powerful symbol of what Black academic excellence looks like at scale. Its pipeline from DC public schools feeds directly into a university culture that has produced Supreme Court justices, Nobel laureates, and Cabinet secretaries. For DC youth who dream of that trajectory, being seen and honored early isn't ceremonial — it's foundational. Explore more through our Howard & HBCU guide.
The concept of Black joy has moved from social media shorthand to serious community strategy. Across the District, from the Anacostia Arts Center to Busboys and Poets on 14th Street NW, institutions are deliberately curating spaces where Black achievement — especially among young people — is witnessed, documented, and celebrated.
This isn't performative. It's structural. When a young girl from Petworth sees her name on a program, when a boy from Congress Heights receives an award in a room full of people who look like him, something measurable shifts. Brookings Institution research on Black student identity affirms that recognition environments directly correlate with academic engagement and long-term civic participation.
DC's political leadership has begun to catch up. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office and the DC Council have increasingly funded youth recognition infrastructure — though advocates argue the investment still lags behind the need. The DC Office of Out of School Time Programs and Grant Management administers millions in youth programming annually, but community leaders in Wards 7 and 8 consistently flag recognition and mentorship as underfunded relative to their impact.
Why This Matters in Washington DC
Washington DC is not just a political capital — it is a cultural capital for Black America. The decisions made here, the institutions built here, and the young people celebrated here carry symbolic weight that extends far beyond the Beltway. When a children's charity marks 20 years of honoring Black youth anywhere in the diaspora, DC takes note — because the city understands better than most that representation in recognition is representation in power.
DC's own power players — many of them products of DC public schools and HBCU pipelines — know this truth intimately. The pipeline from recognized youth to civic leadership runs directly through moments of formal affirmation. The city that produced Kamala Harris's policy team, Ketanji Brown Jackson's clerkship network, and the infrastructure of the Congressional Black Caucus did not do so by accident. It did so by building — and sustaining — a culture of excellence recognition across generations.
For DC's Black community, the question isn't whether to celebrate excellence. The question is how to build systems that make celebration inevitable, replicable, and funded. Follow more coverage in our Culture section and our ongoing DC Power Index.
What's Next: Building DC's Own 20-Year Legacy
The model is proven. A children's charity dedicates two decades to one mission — honoring Black youth — and emerges with a record, a network, and a generation of alumni who carry that recognition forward. DC has the institutions, the talent, and the political will to replicate and exceed that model.
The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, School Without Walls, and the growing network of DC charter schools with explicit equity missions are already doing this work. What they need — and what this 20-year anniversary makes urgently clear — is the infrastructure of recognition: awards, publications, platforms, and community events that name Black young people as excellent, publicly and repeatedly.
Washington DC Magazine will continue to track and amplify those moments. Because in this city, honoring excellence isn't soft work. It's how power is built.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the significance of a children's charity celebrating 20 years of honoring Black youth excellence?
Twenty years represents a full generational cycle — meaning the young people first recognized by the charity are now adults. The milestone validates that sustained, institutionalized recognition of Black youth achievement produces long-term community impact, not just short-term inspiration.
How does Washington DC support Black youth excellence programs?
DC funds youth programming through the Office of Out of School Time Programs and Grant Management, and supports institutions like the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Ron Brown College Preparatory High School. Howard University and DC's HBCU ecosystem also anchor the city's Black academic excellence pipeline.
Why is recognizing Black youth excellence considered an equity strategy?
Research from the American Psychological Association and Brookings Institution links identity affirmation and public recognition to higher academic engagement, resilience, and civic participation among Black youth — making recognition programs a measurable equity intervention, not simply ceremonial.
What DC neighborhoods are leading Black youth empowerment work?
Wards 7 and 8 — including communities in Anacostia, Deanwood, and Congress Heights — have seen significant growth in community-driven youth programming. Columbia Heights, Petworth, and the broader Ward 4 corridor are also active hubs of Black youth mentorship and recognition infrastructure.
How does Howard University connect to DC's Black youth excellence ecosystem?
Howard University serves as the capstone institution for DC's Black academic pipeline. Its alumni network, campus culture, and legacy of producing national leaders make it a north star for DC youth excellence programs — and a tangible destination for young people who are recognized and supported early in their education.
What should DC leaders do to build a 20-year legacy of Black youth recognition?
Advocates recommend sustained public funding for youth recognition infrastructure — including awards programs, community events, and mentorship platforms — particularly in underserved wards. Pairing recognition with academic and civic mentorship creates the pipeline that turns honored students into future leaders.
The bottom line: A children's charity's 20-year anniversary honoring Black youth excellence is more than a milestone — it's a model. Washington DC, with its HBCU legacy, politically engaged Black community, and institutions built for exactly this purpose, has everything it needs to build its own 20-year record of naming Black young people as excellent, loudly and without apology. The infrastructure exists. The talent exists. What comes next is the will to fund and sustain it.
📍 What to Watch Next: Look for DC-based youth organizations to launch new recognition initiatives in 2026, building on renewed national momentum around Black youth achievement. WDCM will track every milestone.
Reporting drawn from: The Voice Online (voice-online.co.uk). Washington DC Magazine provides original analysis, DC-specific context, and editorial perspective beyond the source material.This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by WDCM editorial staff. Washington DC Magazine is committed to accuracy, transparency, and editorial integrity. If you believe any information in this article requires correction, please contact editor@washingtondcmagazine.com.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
