The museum that changed the Mall turns 10, and it's throwing a four-day party to prove it
The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture opens its anniversary weekend September 24 with free programming, a gala at The Wharf, and a closing-day block party built for everyone.
In brief
The museum that changed the Mall turns 10, and it's throwing a four-day party to prove it
Ten years is a short time for a museum. It is a very long time to wait for one. The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on September 24, 2016, and the line to get inside stretched around the block before the doors had even unlocked. A decade later, the building at 1400 Constitution Avenue NW has become something the Mall rarely produces: a destination people return to, not because they have to, but because they keep finding things they missed.
This week, the museum marks that milestone with The Reunion, a four-day commemoration running September 24 through 27. The celebration carries the full title "The Reunion: Welcome Home - Our Legacy Continues" and spans music, food, conversation, family activities and cultural programming. Some events are inside the building. Others move to The Wharf, about two miles southwest, for reasons that turn out to be deliberate and historically loaded.
What ten years looks like in numbers
Since opening on September 24, 2016, the museum has welcomed nearly 14 million visitors from 200 countries and hosted more than 26,000 school groups. That figure - 14 million - sounds like a statistic until you think about the physical reality of 14 million people filing past the Contemplative Court fountain, riding the elevators down into the History Galleries, or stopping cold in front of Emmett Till's casket. The museum holds a collection of more than 45,000 artifacts. It has also built a significant digital presence: its Searchable Museum, an interactive digital platform, has attracted more than 65 million visits.
Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum's founding director and now Smithsonian Secretary, will appear for a special edition of "Understanding America," a conversation moderated by award-winning journalist Laura Coates, commemorating the 10th anniversary. Registration for that program is free but advance tickets are required - the kind of logistical detail worth checking before you show up.
Four days, two venues, one very specific color
The museum's celebration of events begins with a full museum activation on its 10th anniversary, Thursday, September 24, followed by a schedule of public programs and signature events from Friday, September 25, through Sunday, September 27.
Saturday evening is where the weekend shifts gear. Museum patrons and members of the public are invited to "The Purple Ball: Echoes of the Pearl," a special evening at The Wharf, hosted by comedian Bill Bellamy, featuring performances by Grammy Award-winning artist and producer Jermaine Dupri & Friends and DJ D-Nice. The event is a fundraiser. Proceeds will help support the museum's exhibitions, programming and education initiatives. Registration is required.
The name "Echoes of the Pearl" is not decorative. The Wharf location carries its own historical resonance: the 10th-anniversary events there specifically commemorate the 1848 Pearl incident, in which 77 freedom seekers boarded a schooner at the site in one of the largest recorded escape attempts by enslaved people in American history. As museum director Tonya Graves Brackett put it in the official announcement: "We carry that mission back to the water's edge, to the very shore where, in 1848, 77 enslaved people dared to imagine freedom and boarded the Pearl schooner to escape into the night."
Sunday, September 27, closes things out with "Violet Vibes: A Community Celebration," bringing guests together for daylong programming on The Wharf grounds celebrating a decade of memory, preservation and belonging. Admission is free, though space is limited.
Throughout the entire weekend, guests are encouraged to wear shades of purple - the museum's signature color - to reflect the warmth and unity of a family reunion, both inside the museum and at The Wharf.
Inside the building this weekend
The museum itself becomes a celebration space, with live music, dance, art, food, workshops and family activities throughout the weekend - including a children's 10th birthday celebration, Washington's homegrown go-go music, and special anniversary experiences at Sweet Home Café. The café, on the museum's lower level, has always been one of the building's more underrated pleasures: a working restaurant that takes regional African American foodways seriously, from the Carolina coast to the Mississippi Delta.
Friday, September 25, has its own rhythm. Programming runs from a noon session in the Second Floor Classroom through a 7 p.m. event in Heritage Hall, all part of The Reunion series, with free admission and registration required. Afternoon sessions on Saturday, September 26, begin at 10:30 a.m. on the Fourth Floor Overlook, free, with registration required.
How to actually get there and in
The Reunion runs September 24-27, 2026. Museum admission is free, but some anniversary events require separate advance registration. The museum sits at 1400 Constitution Avenue NW, a short walk from the Smithsonian Metro stop on the Orange, Blue, and Silver lines. For Wharf events on Saturday and Sunday, the Wharf/Arena Stage stop on the DC Circulator's National Mall route is the most direct option, or it's a 25-minute walk along Maine Avenue SW.
Travelers and visitors should check the official schedule before arriving - the anniversary programming at nmaahc.si.edu/10Years is the definitive source, and registration links for individual events are posted there. A few have already filled. Saturday's Purple Ball in particular will go fast, if it hasn't already.
The museum is open daily. The party, this time, is four days long and running right now.
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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.
