2021 Grand Marshal: Justin “Yaddiya” Johnson

Justin “Yaddiya” Johnson is a musical artist, activist, and founder of Long Live GoGo, an organization focused on using GoGo, a style of music that originated in Washington, D.C., as a tool for advocacy and education, as well as a means of protesting injustice. “Over the years, music education and GoGo culture have started to diminish due to the lack of resources provided by the city government and also the massive rate of gentrification.”

Justin’s fighting for investments in education and cultural sustainability in policymaking. By hosting massively popular GoGo music concerts on the National Mall and all around D.C., he’s making a case for the preservation of Black culture in Washington, a city whose residents are mostly people of color.

Lately, he’s been using his platform to advocate for bold, structural democracy reforms— including D.C. statehood, which would give voting representation in Congress to the more than 700,000 residents of D.C. As a resident himself, Justin sees D.C.’s lack of statehood as the silencing of Black voices. His fight is to give those voices a say in the very democracy which surrounds them.

“In 2019 and beyond, Long Live GoGo has continued to organize massive rallies to create an inclusive space for Black and Brown communities to have their voices heard.”