DC SCORES Through Three Decades of Black History in the District

D.C. history is Black history. In 1957, the District became the first majority-Black major city in the United States and remains a hub of Black political power, culture, and identity today. 

DC SCORES’ 30-year history is deeply rooted in the Black communities that still make up the majority of D.C. residents. From early expansions across the city to becoming one of the largest youth-serving organizations in the District, DC SCORES has shaped, and been shaped by, the District’s Black history. 

Forged in Howard University’s Grassroots Soccer Legacy

DC SCORES was established in 1994 by Julie Kennedy, a teacher at Marie Reed Elementary School. The growth of the nonprofit’s soccer, poetry, and service-learning model was a collaborative effort. Indeed, its early success was significantly aided by a partnership between DC SCORES and Howard University’s trailblazing men’s soccer team.

The Howard team had captivated D.C. sports fans in 1974 when the squad became the first from a historically Black college or university to win an NCAA national championship. In the 1970s, the team was underpinned by international students, including a Bermudian named Keith Tucker, who later coached the men’s team to an undefeated run to the championship game in 1988. 

As a coach, Tucker redirected his recruitment strategy to focus on homegrown D.C. talent. Throughout the 1980s, he used his own funds to finance youth soccer leagues to increase the popularity of soccer among the city’s youth. The teams were coached by members of the Howard squad, connecting kids with role models from one of the city’s most successful college sports teams.

By the time DC SCORES was founded in 1994, Tucker’s league had teams in every ward. However, when a new coaching job in Bermuda meant he could no longer run the program, Tucker asked DC SCORES to take over. He recalled being motivated by the youth development potential of working directly in schools “where we’d have internal control of the program.” “I wanted DC SCORES to grow as the lead,” he said.

Today, Tucker is back in D.C. and continues to be a critical member of the DC SCORES community. Despite retiring from coaching, he still supports the organization with everything from soccer operations to field lining and tournament refereeing. “The atmosphere at DC SCORES is big smiles, everybody smiling, everybody enjoying themselves,” Tucker said, “and my smile gets bigger every year!”

Service Learning with a Groundbreaking White House

DC SCORES poetry slams are always highly anticipated during presidential election years. This was especially true in 2008 when poet-athletes took the stage just weeks after Barack Obama’s historic victory at the polls. 

Black youth have always represented a majority of the poet-athletes participating in the DC SCORES program. The 2008 slams presented these young people with their first public opportunity to share their hopes for the incoming administration led by the first Black president in U.S. history. 

When Obama took office in January 2009, poet-athletes had a front-row seat to his historic White House. A few months after his inauguration, the DC SCORES team from Arts & Technology Academy (now KIPP DC Arts & Technology) was invited to perform for staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Poet-athletes were also deeply involved in the administration’s initiatives on childhood health. Bancroft poet-athletes fulfilled much of their DC SCORES service-learning curriculum by participating in Michele Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, including helping her plant her kitchen garden on the White House lawn. In 2010, Luis, a poet-athlete from Tubman Elementary, accompanied President Obama on stage for the signing of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. 

The legacy of Obama’s historic election win still resonates with poet-athletes today. In 2022, when members of Kimball Elementary’s DC SCORES team performed at Eastside Poetry Slam, they namechecked Obama in an ode to Black culture titled “Our History in Similes”: “Barack Obama, Dr. King, and Me, / I am what my ancestors always dreamed of when they became free.”

Building the Next Generation of D.C. Poets

D.C.’s cultural history has been dramatically shaped by the Black writers who lived and worked in the city. Langston Hughes won his first literary prize for “The Weary Blues,” a poem inspired by Black life on D.C.’s Seventh Street, while Zora Neale Hurston, Sonia Sanchez, and DC SCORES board member Clint Smith all have deep connections to the District.  

For thirty years, DC SCORES has connected young people with this cultural heritage through its poetry curriculum, which not only reinforces creative writing in school but brings young people into the arts scene beyond the classroom. 

For instance, DC SCORES’ partnership with cultural and arts hub Busboys and Poets (which is named for Hughes) enables young people to perform and attend events at creative venues across the city, while DC SCORES poetry slams (held last year at Howard University) are the largest youth poetry events in the DMV. 

Through DC SCORES’ poetry curriculum, poet-athletes work with some of the region’s top spoken-word artists. National Poetry Slam champion Black Chakra, Womxn of the World Slam finalist Carlynn Newhouse, and the Inaugural DC Youth Poet Laureate Malachi ‘MalPractice’ Byrd all serve as DC SCORES poetry specialists who lead poetry clinics geared toward honing poet-athletes’ writing and performance skills. 

Poet-athletes in DC SCORES also share the stage with some of the region’s most prominent writers. Carnegie Medal winner Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author Clint Smith, and MacArthur “genius grant” winner Jason Reynolds have all appeared alongside poet-athletes at Our Words Our City, DC SCORES’ premier poetry showcase. 

These unparalleled opportunities not only enable poet-athletes to engage with the artists driving D.C.’s creative scene but also to put their own stamp on the cultural history of their hometown. Kayla Nelson, an 8th-grade poet-athlete at MacFarland Middle School, describes DC SCORES as her “origin story” as a poet. “Our Words Our City was my ‘I made it’ moment,” she said. “All artists have that, so it made me feel like an artist.”