| “Kojo in Your Community” series concludes in
Southwest Washington BY MIKE UNGER 
Photo by Jeff Watts
Kojo Nnamdi took his show into the community four times last year, including in May, when the show was taped at St. Timothy’s Church in Southeast Washington. The audience at Arena Stage in Southwest Washington on a warm summer night was raptly attentive, and it wasn’t hard to discern why. The topic during Kojo Nnamdi’s latest foray out of his WAMU studio into the front lines—the future of the neighborhood many of them call home—was of the utmost importance to the people in Arena’s Kreeger Theatre.
Photo by Jeff Watts |
As the crowd watched, listened, and participated in a live taping of The Kojo Nnamdi Show that would air two days later, it was clear that yet again “Kojo in Your Community,” Nnamdi’s traveling radio program series, had struck a nerve. “I moved to Southwest in 1976,” said community activist Thelma Jones, one of two panelists on stage for the broadcast. “I saw a beautiful oasis. Development does need to occur. I’m not against development. But I am against disrupting people’s lives. When the fabric of this community changes, that’s going to disrupt people’s lives.” Throughout the first hour of the two-hour, two-topic show, residents and experts discussed how the mistakes of the past could be avoided in the coming years, when a massive revitalization effort in the area promises to dramatically alter the neighborhood. The hot—but not heated—dialogue was typical of the series, which previously visited Laurel and Bethesda, Md., Falls Church, Va., and the Columbia Heights section of the District. “You’re the reason why we’re here,” Nnamdi told the audience before the broadcast. “Yours are the voices we’d like to hear on the radio.” It was that desire to get even closer to the heart of the issues he routinely discusses on his daily two-hour political, news, and talk show on local public radio that first led Nnamdi out into the community for a taping in 2001. The series was anointed “Kojo in Your Community” in 2003, but a lack of funding halted the forums until this year, when a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reestablished them. “I welcome the chance to get out of the studio and into the community, where I can interact with listeners in a more personal setting,” said Nnamdi, who’s been a local broadcaster for more than three decades. “These forums encourage citizens to discover new points of view, and offer everyone a chance to be part of the dialogue.” And everyone, it seemed this night at Arena Stage, took Nnamdi up on his offer. Individual comments concerning the Southwest redevelopment garnered both applause and grumbling disagreement from the audience, as did several points made during the second segment, which focused on Washington’s seemingly one-political party culture. 
Michelle Bernard, president and chief executive of the Independent Women’s Forum, was one of three panelists on stage for the final hour. “I think African Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic not only here in Washington, D.C., but all over the country,” she said. “As Dr. Phil would say, is it working for you? We are put in a position where Democrats write off the African American vote because they know they have it, and Republicans write off the African American vote because they know they won’t get it.” Robert Woodson Sr., founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, expanded on those thoughts. “The black community is the only community that is politically monolithic, and that is why they’re politically impotent,” he said. “A lot of people believe in diversity, except when it comes to diversity of ideas.” Comments from a woman in the audience about the “herd mentality” of African American voters drew jeers from others, and the third panelist, Bernard Demczuk, assistant vice president for District of Columbia Affairs at George Washington University, disputed the assertion that race is still the central focus in city politics. “Now you have a new culture that is mostly interested in class, not race,” he said. To listen to the town hall meeting, log on to www.wamu.org and click on calendar. |
