Along Columbia Road, NW
Location
Once an Indian trail, later a covered wagon route, and then an elite shopping street, Columbia Road now serves the Latino community with bodegas (small Latino grocery stores) and restaurants offering pupusas, tamales, and empanadas along with news, gossip, and community services.
Restaurants offer Brazilian, El Salvadoran, Mexican, and Cuban fare, and the Latin beat can be heard at many of the area's nightclubs and bars. On Saturdays in April through December, you can catch the open-air market when farmers bring their produce from as far away as Pennsylvania.
Grand, early 20th-century apartment buildings and late Victorian rowhouses can be seen along Columbia Road west of 18th Street. Little Unity Park, a gathering place at Champlain Street, presents a small but powerful symbol of this community's pride in their diversity. Jerome Meadows sculpture, Carrying a Rainbow on Your Shoulder, stands proudly in the center of this popular neighborhood space.
Spread the Word
Testimonials
“The DC Jazz Jam has provided a tremendous boost to DC’s indigenous jazz scene. [The] cadre of fine musicians at Dahlak have managed to create a warm, inviting, encouraging, and creative environment at their weekly jam sessions, which is no small accomplishment. Experienced professionals, like myself, attend the jam to relax, stretch out musically, and network with other players. But at the same time, the DC Jazz Jam has proved to be the perfect setting for younger talent to come out, and have some of their first experiences playing in front of an audience and to learn their craft in the laboratory of a nurturing jam session. In this manner, the DC Jazz Jam is but the latest chapter in Washington’s long history with America’s classical music, jazz.”