♪ Hey, everybody.

I'm Felicia Curry, and welcome to "WETA Arts," the place to discover what's going on in the creative and performing arts in and around D.C.

In this episode... local dancers take on a K-pop boot camp... K-pop is like a door that people enter to experience Korean culture.

Curry: and in Annapolis, a D.C.

artist has his museum debut.

The arts is such a powerful vehicle for sharing Black history.

Curry: It's all ahead on "WETA Arts."

♪ Washington, D.C.

's access to cultures from around the world affords us, its residents, an array of opportunities we couldn't get anywhere else, and that access gave me a chance to chase my pop star dreams.

Oh!

I am so excited.

The K-pop Academy!

Let's go!

Woman: Hello, Felicia.

Curry: Hello!

Welcome to the Korean Cultural Center.

Curry: Thank you.

Woman: Come in.

Curry, voice-over: The Korean Embassy's cultural outreach arm is hosting a two-week dance class in a worldwide cultural sensation known as K-pop, taught by Jay Kim, who has danced and choreographed for some of the biggest names in K-pop.

Now based in London, he has led K-pop workshops around the world, but this is his first time at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.

Hi, Jay.

Didn't mean to interrupt.

Hi!

Welcome!

Welcome to the K-pop Academy.

Thank you.

So good to meet you.

Thank you for coming today.

I know you're with a beginner class today.

Are you getting them ready for Saturday's performance?

Yes.

Can we do a little something now?

Will you show me a little-- just a little something?

Yeah, of course.

It's very simple.

OK, perfect.

That's exactly what I need.

It's just like kicking your right leg... Yeah.

but so, like, kick, and left leg kick, and then shoulder shake like this.

There's my favorite part.

[Laughter] Man: ♪ Let's go ♪ Curry, voice-over: K-pop emerged in the early 1990s with Seo Taiji and Boys, who blended hip-hop, techno, and rock with Korean language, fashion, and culture.

Unlike many Western artists, who control their music and image, K-pop performers are cast, trained, and tightly packaged by entertainment companies in what's known as the idol system.

By the 2000s, K-pop had fans worldwide.

By the 2010s, it was a global phenomenon.

BTS, launched in 2013, became the fastest act since the Beatles to earn 6 U.S.

number one singles.

Blackpink: ♪ Hey, ha ♪ ♪ How you like that?

♪ Blackpink, debuting in 2016, has over 54 million Instagram followers.

Blackpink: ♪ How you like that?

♪ Huntrix: ♪ Run, Run, we run the town ♪ Curry, voice-over: K-pop has become so popular that Netflix's animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" about rival K-pop groups drew over 33 million views in 93 countries just two weeks after its August 2025 release.

♪ Jay: 5, 6, 7, 8.

Curry, voice-over: At the Korean Cultural Center's K-pop Academy, 40 K-pop fans, 20 beginner and 20 intermediate students, have just two weeks to prepare for a final showcase.

Jay: From the beginning.

Don't forget.

Try to keep formation.

[NCT Dream's "Boombox" playing] 5, 6.

♪ [Singing in Korean] Girl: I have some older friends, and they always chat about BTS.

"BTS, BTS, BTS."

"BTS this, BTS that," and I'm like, "What is that?"

And they show me some videos, and I'm like, "Oh, I don't understand a thing," but I liked it.

♪ I'm so happy that I got accepted for being here.

I was dancing K-pop by myself at home.

And English is not my first language, so I'm like, oh, I hope to try to connect.

♪ NCT Dream: ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Singing in Korean] Woman: I'm a professional violinist, like, classical.

Weird, right, that I'm in a K-pop academy, but life happens.

When I was 15, I was introduced to K-pop by my close friend in high school... [Fingers snapping] KATSEYE: ♪ Hey ♪ Maya: and then when KATSEYE got really big and they released their documentary last year, I was like, "Oh, like, I'm curious, because you don't see the K-pop idol training.

They keep that behind closed doors, and I'm like, "Wait.

this is pretty much exactly my preparatory conservatory training."

NCT Dream: ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ So I felt like I could actually connect to them.

Woman: I was a little bit afraid because I am 27 years old I was--maybe I was going to be one of the oldest.

I really loved K-pop but never got into the dance because I think it was a little bit hard for me, even though I am an active person.

I like to go to the gym and ride a bicycle.

Jay: Ha ha.

Head down, hand down.

Aimee: When they sent the email about the K-pop Academy, I was like, "Hmm.

It's an opportunity of a lifetime," so even though I had any experience before, I just went for it, and here I am.

Jay: We're gonna use your right hand first and then left hand.

6, 7, 8!

Kick, kick, kick, and up, up, pull out, pull, and cross.

Jump!

And oh, oh, oh.

OK.

We are improving, I think.

[Laughter] ["Beatbox" playing] [NCT Dream singing in Korean] ♪ Curry: Is this your first time taking K-pop?

It's my first time.

Why K-pop?

My niece is a K-pop dancer, and she shared her video, and I saw it.

I'm like, "Oh, this is cool.

"Looks like I can do it.

It doesn't look too hard."

Ha ha!

But wait.

Then you get in the class.

Yeah.

The beginner class.

It's so hard.

♪ It's not as intimidating now because he breaks down the steps.

Curry: As a group, You all look so cohesive.

It looks so fun.

Thank you.

♪ NCT Dream: ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ So why K-pop?

It did help me a lot whenever I was going through tough times to listen to some of the music.

It's always happy for me, or it understood kind of where I was coming from.

-Yes.

-So to hear it always made me feel better.

NCT Dream: ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ Jay: And then bow and finish.

OK.

♪ Curry: In Korea, lucky aspiring idols train under the rigorous corporate system.

Outside of Korea, fans teach themselves routines and team up to re-create performances.

[Speaking Korean] Curry: The Korean Cultural Center's K-pop Academy started in 2016.

How has K-pop been in terms of importance to the nation of South Korea?

K-pop has become a way the world gets to know about Korea.

People start to enjoy the music first, and they're like, "Oh, I want to learn more about what the lyrics is talking about," and they get to learn the Korean language, and they're like, "I want to learn more "about what kind of outfit they wear, the makeup and food and drama," and that ends them to be more curious about the Korean culture.

And is that why you felt it was important to include the K-pop Academy as part of your programing here at the Cultural Center?

Yes.

It's one of the biggest culture of ours.

We saw some of the students already starting to have pieces of their costumes that they were wearing in class.

Yes.

So it's not just the dancing.

They're really embracing the culture, as well.

Mm-hmm.

What else do you hope they take away?

I want to create a space where K-pop fans can discover their passion, discuss their interests, and have the sense of belonging and just to have fun.

Jay: 5, 6, 7, 8.

KATSEYE: ♪ Boba tea, gnarly ♪ ♪ Tesla, gnarly ♪ Girl: I like to dance to everything.

I'm Hispanic, so, you know, bachata, salsa, a little bit of everything, but, yeah, mostly Korean, which I guess goes into hip-hop, contemporary, and a bunch of different styles.

♪ There's a lot of endurance, cardio.

We get here at 1:00, we finish at 5:00, so that's 4 hours nonstop.

♪ KATSEYE: ♪ Everything's gnarly ♪ [Cheering] Sophia: A friend showed me, like, Korean drama, and I just went deeper into the hole, discovered the music, food.

Recently, I started studying Korean, so I'm all in.

OK, 6, 7, 8.

Cha cha cha hoo hoo hoo!

Curry: Why K-pop?

I started with Afrobeats because that's what my culture is.

I'm Cameroonian, so I grew up on Afrocentric dances, and then it leaned more into hip-hop and then K-pop, and I really liked how conceptually aesthetic it was and how they actually had set choreography, and I found that really intriguing.

♪ Jay: Movement is fine, but our energy's too flat.

[Speaking Korean] So thank you, everyone, and then I'm proud of you guys.

Thank you so much.

[Applause] Curry: Do you feel like he was hard on you all because you're good?

-Yeah -Yes.

-Yeah.

It's very clear that he respects us as people and as dancers in the way that he talks to us.

He'll come around and literally just be in our face.

Curry: I saw that.

Alexis: Like, yeah.

[Laughter] And that's very comfortable.

I was gonna say do you feel like that motivates you to work harder both for yourself and for him?

Dominick: And for him.

Alexis: Yes, definitely.

Because there's a level of respect I feel like we have with him and understanding that's just like, "All right, we got this.

We understand.

Let's go."

Thank you.

I can't wait to see you on Saturday.

♪ Curry, voice-over: After just two weeks of rehearsals, the day of the big performance has arrived.

Curry: Who's coming to watch today?

My dad is over there.

He's actually filming right now.

Is he?

Hey, Dad.

Ha ha ha!

♪ Woman: You look good, by the way.

Yeah!

[Laughter] Woman: Our leader organized making and signing a card to give to our teacher as a thank you for teaching us.

-Hey!

-Hey!

Jay: I'm just waiting for you guys there, so see you later.

-OK.

-OK.

Curry: Jay, it is the day of the show.

Yeah.

What do you tell the students right before they go out onstage?

Don't stop.

If you make a mistake, don't stop and don't look at me.

♪ Sua: Audiences are coming in.

Make sure to stay in this green room and listen to Claire, OK?

-OK.

-Follow Claire.

I can't wait.

It's almost showtime.

Audience is coming in.

I got to take my seat!

♪ Man: Come on in, everyone.

Proper greeting.

[Speaks Korean] [Audience repeats] Very good.

Welcome to the K-pop Academy Showcase here at Imagination Stage.

We've been putting together this culmination of one of our favorite programs of the year, K-pop Academy.

We're gonna get this party started with our intermediate group, and they're gonna be performing "Gnarly" by KATSEYE.

Let's hear it for them.

[Cheering and applause] KATSEYE: They could describe everything with one single word.

You know, like... ♪ Boba tea, gnarly ♪ ♪ Robotics, gnarly ♪ ♪ Fried chicken, gnarly ♪ ♪ Party in the Hollywood Hills ♪ ♪ Uh-huh ♪ ♪ This song, gnarly ♪ ♪ Oh, my God, that new beat ♪ ♪ Freaking gnarly ♪ ♪ Oh, God, is this real?

♪ ♪ Gnarly ♪ ♪ Oh, we're in a session tonight ♪ ♪ Gang, gang ♪ ♪ Gang, gang, gang, gang ♪ ♪ Gnarly ♪ ♪ Gnarly ♪ ♪ Everything's gnarly ♪ ♪ Na na na na na gnarly ♪ ♪ Na na na na na gnarly ♪ ♪ I'm legit, I'm legit ♪ ♪ Na na na na na gnarly ♪ ♪ Na na na na na gnarly ♪ ♪ I'm legit, I'm legit ♪ ♪ Everything's gnarly ♪ [Cheering and applause] Badvillain: ♪ Pull up with the girls, so let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ [Singing in Korean] -♪ Let's go ♪ -♪ Let's go ♪ ♪ Take it, gotta breathe in, breathe out ♪ ♪ Yo ♪ [Singing in Korean] -♪ Let's go ♪ -♪ Bang ♪ ♪ Breathe in, breathe out ♪ ♪ Bang ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Zoom, gotta zoom ♪ ♪ ♪ Zoom, gotta zoom ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Like, like, like, like ♪ ♪ You don't wanna to do this ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Step aside ♪ [Singing in Korean] [Echoing] ♪ Like ♪ ♪ Zoom, gotta zoom ♪ ♪ Zoom, gotta zoom ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Like, like ♪ ♪ Zoom ♪ [Cheering and applause] [NCT Dream's "Beatbox" playing] ♪ Yeah ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Cool kid, kick on the drum, drum, drum ♪ ♪ Sugar pop, I got some, some, some ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Like a morning call ♪ ♪ Dance, dance, dance, dance ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Singing in Korean] ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Cheering and applause] Emcee: Let's hear it for them one more time.

[Cheering and applause] Jay: Thank you so much.

[Zerobaseone's "Blue" playing] [Singing in Korean] ♪ Curry: I'm giving you a hug.

Aw!

You did it.

Ha ha ha!

How are you feeling?

Sua: I'm feeling great!

I'm kind of relieved that it's over, but again, I am so proud of our students.

I hope this will be a chance for them to get into Korean culture more in general and hopefully visit Korea one day.

I hope you get to take a nap.

Congratulations.

Yes, I will.

I'm gonna take a good nap tonight.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Felicia, for coming.

["Beatbox" playing] NCT Dream: ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Singing in Korean] Curry, voice-over: The Korean Cultural Center of Washington, D.C., typically holds its K-pop Academy in July.

Sign up for their newsletter for audition announcements and more.

For local K-pop events, follow @kpop-in-dc and follow @stepswithjay to keep up with Jay Kim's travels.

[Singing in Korean] ♪ Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox ♪ [Cheering and applause] So fun.

Around the corner from the state courthouse in Annapolis, Maryland, stands the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, Maryland's official museum of African American history and culture, named after Maryland icons Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman.

I stopped by to see a special exhibition called "Sacred Spaces" by D.C.

multimedia artist Jabari Jefferson.

I'm so excited to see this piece in particular, because I know it's about your family and your family's history, and I'm noticing immediately the Metro station signs.

Jefferson: Yes.

Yes.

This is my homage to D.C., my D.C.

upbringing as a fifth generation Washingtonian.

I had to celebrate that with this sculpture, which in my opinion is a family tree.

So you see my mother smiling, greeting all the guests.

The Metro stations are how I navigated the city growing up, and then on the back is my father, and on the opposite side of the sculpture is his lineage that came from Virginia.

My mother's side, They all came from the Carolinas.

A recurring motif in the show is human migration and human movement.

Hmm.

It's a really intentional conversation about gentrification in the city, and it was a curatorial choice to have the first room be just a bit of an introduction to who I am as an artist before we get to the main section.

Curry, voice-over: Martina Dodd curates the museum's temporary exhibitions.

You're thinking about the exhibitions that go in the rotating space.

What are you thinking about so that it speaks to what's here in the permanent collection?

The exhibit is called "Sacred Spaces."

through mixed media, installation, and paintings, Jabari is really thinking about what we think are sacred objects and stories and how are we telling those stories, how are we preserving those histories, and how are we letting other people know that it's important to preserve them.

How does the permanent exhibition speak to the mission of the museum?

The mission of the museum is really to collect, preserve, and interpret material culture about Maryland, but centering African American voices and stories.

So we start off the permanent gallery seeing this installation of us on a ship.

We're starting with this idea that there were bodies of people and communities who were brought over against their will and produced labor and contributed to the commerce of this city and the state, but when you walk into the gallery, you learn even more.

We're not just talking about the labor of African Americans.

We're also thinking about the wisdom and skill and knowledge they possessed.

We're also looking at movements like civil rights movements and education efforts made by African Americans, and then you're getting to see objects, artwork, documents, books that help tell that story.

♪ Curry, voice-over: Dodd led me to the renovated church, where the rest of the exhibition is displayed.

Curry: My eye is immediately turning to this floor-to-ceiling piece right over what would have been the pulpit in the church.

How did a piece like this come to be?

This beautiful tapestry is really honoring the founding commissioners of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, so these individuals came together to preserve this physical building in the 1970s.

Jabari really was inspired by that history and made a altar to the founding commissioners.

Curry, voice-over: I met with the executive director Chanel Johnson to learn more.

Can you tell us how this museum came to be?

So in the 1700s, Charity Folks was enslaved in the city of Annapolis.

Johnson: She was later manumitted, and she became a property owner in our state's capital.

Her family would sell the property to a congregation of African Americans just 10 years after emancipation to build Mount Moriah AME church.

The congregation was here for 100 years and in the 1970s sold the property to Anne Arundel County.

Well, the county wanted to tear it down and turn it into a parking lot, but community activists, local historians tapped the newly legislated Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture.

They finally won national preservation status, and in 1984, it opened as the state's first official museum on African American history and culture.

What are the challenges you face as an organization dedicated to the history of Black people?

This is a really challenging time on a federal level when it comes to the consistent attempt to erase and minimize Black history, art, and culture, but our agency was born out of the Civil Rights Movement.

We were born out of the Black Power movement.

We have the archive to prove and to showcase that we've been through this before, we've seen this before, and we will consistently resist, we will consistently preserve and share our history as a tool for community building, as a tool for connection, as a tool for inspiration for others to be positive forces where they live.

That is literally the foundation of Black history in this country.

How did you decide that you wanted to include Jabari's work in your museum?

Oftentimes, we look at artists as the artist and the historian in two separate spheres.

The arts is such a powerful vehicle for sharing, for preserving, and for teaching Black history, so having Jabari here in conversation with our collections, intertwining it with his own family history and love for Black history was incredible, and it really was a transformative project for our team and for Jabari.

Curry: The 18-foot tapestry tribute to the founding commissioners connects to the museum's mission in several ways.

So when you pull your phone up to the tapestry, a video pops up that was created to tell us about the history of the church and then the museum.

On multiple occasions, people were invited to bring in their discarded clothing.

They help cut and strip these materials and then attach them to canvases that eventually made this tapestry, so I think that builds a legacy of how community members were coming together to save this church and community members came together to build that tapestry.

So here's another.

Curry, voice-over: I got the rest of my tour with the artist himself to get more insight into his perspective.

Was it the space that led you to the title "Sacred Spaces"?

No, it was working closely with the curator Martina Dodd, but the reason I fell in love with that title, not just because this was previously known as a place of worship.

I looked at it as like, man, this is like an alternate reality in which it wasn't turned into a parking lot, and now it gets to host contemporary artwork in it.

I think I'm looking at your picture on there.

Yes, yes, yes.

The piece is featuring Thomas Jefferson, but more importantly, the subject matter of just my family ties.

My family's relationship with enslavement dealt with Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation in Virginia, so I was never really interested in broadcasting that information.

However, I did feel it to be appropriate because the building that we're sitting in was built by freed slaves.

I heard you have a piece here that is-- that speaks specifically to migration.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I'd love to see that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

it's called "Exodus."

It's one of one of my favorite romantic pieces.

The piece was inspired by one of my favorite artists Jacob Lawrence, who did a series of 40 paintings that told the visual story of Black people moving from the South to the North for jobs.

That left such an imprint on me when I was a child that I always longed to be able to make work that was actually talking about important things such as human migration.

Curry: What do you think is the unifying thing that you do in your art that when we look at it we immediately say, "Oh, that's a Jabari Jefferson piece"?

I would say the visual overload aspect of it.

Every single canvas may have between... 50 to 60 different sources that it came from.

The reason I use clothes that were used is I look at it as 50 different articles of different human beings that I would never meet that are now archived in it, so it kind of gives it a life quality.

I think the pieces that are about you, that are about your history, that are very personal, I think that's a hard thing to do as an artist, and I appreciate that you gave us that gift, so thank you for that.

Thank you.

That means a lot to me.

Thank you for acknowledging that, as well.

Curry: The Banneker-Douglass- Tubman Museum is located at 84 Franklin Street in Annapolis and is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

Jabari Jefferson exhibition's "Sacred Spaces" is up through December 30.

Thank you for watching "WETA Arts."

Be well, be creative, and enjoy the art all around you.

I'm Felicia Curry.

In the middle of the tapestry is a sankofa bird, which is a symbol from Ghana, which means "Go back and fetch it," So this artist is really thinking about how can we go back to our past, pull information and wisdom to help propel us to the future?

I can see all of you dancing together in the future as, like, groups and really a lot of community and camaraderie.

-Yeah.

-Definitely.

It's coming up.

[Stomping] Hey!

Got it!

Ha ha ha!

Announcer: For more about the artists and institutions featured in this episode, go to WETA.org/arts.