Kalen Murphy

Private dinner parties provide exclusivity. Music festivals create community. Luckily for both crowds, Diner en Blanc meets somewhere in the middle. For those unaware of the best unkept secret, the multi-city annual event is a secret pop-up picnic celebrating art and music, hosted at a unique location that organisers reveal only the day before. What began as a private dinner in Paris decades has blossomed into an exclusive event rooted in inclusivity.

It’s moments like this past weekend’s “Live in the District” at Nationals Park that further cements Wale’s status as a statesman for the entire DMV. Midway through his supporting tour of recent critically-acclaimed LP everything is a lot, his appearance in DC with Smino during Juneteenth weekend is exactly what the city needed.

When you’re a rising artist like Nali, life never fails to come at you fast. One moment, you’re finding your own rhythm within your career, and then, BOOM: the right moment comes along that propels you into the eyes of many to the beat of its own drum. That’s how the cards played for the Brooklyn-bred singer when a snippet of her breakout single “4 U” began to circulate across social media, receiving co-signs from industry heavy-hitters like Khalid and Ca$h Cobain.