“Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration” is a free, three-day concert taking place on the grounds of the Washington Monument from Friday, Sept. 23 to Sunday, Sept. 25. Co-produced by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the event ushers in the opening of the Smithsonian’s newest museum Sept. 24.

President Obama is expected to preside over the opening ceremony on the 24th, cutting the ribbon for a museum that was established as an Act of Congress in 2003.

Other performers on the bill include Stax Music Academy, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 9th Wonder, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Josh White Jr., Dom Flemons, the McIntosh County Shouters and Jean Carne. D.C.-area dance groups the National Hand Dance Association and Urban Artistry also appear on the bill.

“The themes of the festival highlight the social power of African American music as a communicator of cultural values, challenges, aspirations and creative expression,” concert co-curator Mark Puryear says in a press release.

“Freedom Sounds” will run Friday, Sept. 23 from noon to 5 p.m. and the following Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Complete lineup and schedule information can be found on the museum’s website.

More on the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

• WAMU’s interview with Founding Director Lonnie Bunch
• Lonnie Bunch on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
• How The Smithsonian Is Building Its New, Sweeping Collection Of Black American Music
• Death Has Been Called the First Punk Band. Now They’re in the Smithsonian
• Smithsonian Acquires Collection of Classic Hip-Hop Photos
• J Dilla’s Gear Is Headed to the Smithsonian
• Inside the Creation of the Smithsonian’s African American Museum

Nationwide this week is called Banned Books Week. At the D.C. Public Library, it’s called “Uncensored.”

Banned Books Week was established in 1982 to raise awareness of books that people want off the shelves. It’s not an issue limited to the McCarthy era — even now, parents, leaders and various interest groups rally to censor or remove books from libraries for all kinds of reasons. But the D.C. Public Library widens the scope of Banned Books Week, looking at any form of expression that’s been challenged, including music.

That’s why the library has made a playlist for Banned Books Week two years in a row, says Maggie Gilmore, a librarian in DCPL’s adult information services division. This year, the D.C. Public Library Foundation asked her to compile a list of songs with a dual theme: censorship and D.C. music.

Gilmore consulted her fellow librarians for ideas and solicited input from attendees at August’s D.C. Record Fair at Penn Social. This is the resulting playlist, streamable via Spotify and YouTube, below:

Bad Brains, “Banned in DC”
Chain & the Gang, “Free Will”
Parliament, “Chocolate City”
Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, “Run Joe”
The Evens, “Wanted Criminals”
The Cornel West Theory, “DC Love Story”
Ice-T, “Freedom of Speech”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips, “Don’t Touch My Hair” (JD Samson Remix)
Minor Threat, “Straight Edge”
Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”
Unrest, “Malcolm X Park”
The Blackbyrds, “Rock Creek Park”
The Roots with Wale and Chrisette Michele, “Rising Up”
Diamond District, “March Off”
Marvin Gaye, “Got To Give It Up”

The playlist comes across as a celebration of outspoken music — not hard to find in this town, Gilmore says.

“[D.C.] is a natural environment for people to discuss political issues,” Gilmore says. Plus, she says, the city’s constantly shifting population can aggravate local tensions.

“With D.C. having so many people moving in and out of the city, there’s always been tension in the various groups that are represented in D.C.,” Gilmore says. She cites D.C.’s signature funk sound as an example. “Go-go has always been challenged by those who may feel it’s obtrusive — and maybe not even the music itself, but the social scene around go-go.”

The playlist debuted at last Friday’s opening party for “Uncensored: Information Antics,” the library’s new exhibit in honor of Banned Books Week. The show remains on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library through Oct. 22.

Gilmore says “Uncensored” and this playlist are part of the library’s larger efforts to document and support local expression in all forms. DCPL’s D.C. Punk Archive has been in the works for a year now. Gilmore coordinates the library’s series of punk-rock basement shows, meant to highlight its punk collection. After this, the library focuses on archiving go-go, then jazz, Gilmore says.

“Trying to highlight local music, [D.C.’s cultural] history and current artists — that’s one of the main goals of the basement shows, to provide a space for bands to play,” Gilmore says. “So this was an opportunity to continue on that.”

Related: WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show airs a segment on Banned Books Week Tuesday at 1:32 p.m. Can’t tune in? The segment will be archived on kojoshow.org.

Warning: Some songs contain explicit lyrics.

Via Spotify: