The future is built on the stories we choose to remember.
DC’s stories, kept by DC’s makers.
Remembrance comes to Washington through (x) the sweet, the creative production studio led by Carlene. Elders speak. Young makers record, edit, and build in public. The city keeps what it almost lost.
A Remembrance Data Story Campaign · (x) the sweet × Cypher × Remembrance
Photo: the sweet studio, Carlene at work
Photo: Elder Bench conversation
Photo: apprentices at the Hot Chair
Photo: DC neighborhood exterior
The Campaign
Three stages. One summer. A city that remembers itself.
1
Tell the Stories
DC elders sit with our makers and speak their truths: the shops, the sounds, the Sundays. Every session is recorded, archived, and owned on the community’s terms.
2
Make It a Place
The work happens in public: worktables in neighborhood coffee shops, mentors on the Elder Bench, the Library of Congress and city libraries as the classroom.
3
Prove It Pays
The stories become real products serving real DC businesses: audio, visuals, and campaigns made by apprentices who leave with a portfolio and a trade.
Inside the Work
Where the remembering happens.
The Elder Bench
A conversation series where DC elders mentor the makers recording them. The elder is not the subject of the work. The elder is the professor of it.
Your life is data the future needs. Sit with us. Tell it.
Photo or short clip: an Elder Bench session in progress
Photo: co-branded Hot Chair worktable in a DC coffee shop
The Hot Chair
Co-branded worktables in DC coffee shops where apprentices cut audio, design visuals, and run comms in full view of the neighborhood. The city watches its own story get made.
Own a shop? Host a Hot Chair and put your name on the making.
The Apprentices
Young DC creatives on audio, visual, and comms tracks, hosted through the city’s summer employment program, trained by working professionals, and paid to keep their city’s memory.
They do not leave with a certificate. They leave with a body of work.
Photo: apprentice headshots + work samples
The Anchor
The September Showcase
End of September 2026 · Washington, DC · Location announced soon
Live products, live demos, and a portfolio of DC stories serving real businesses, presented by the apprentices who made them, in front of the elders who made them possible.
Get Involved in DC
Three ways in.
Families
Nominate a DC Elder
Someone in your family is carrying a story this city has not heard. Name them. We will listen.
Shops & Venues
Host a Hot Chair
Give the makers a table and the neighborhood a front-row seat. Co-branded, covered, and good for business.
Sponsors
Back the Showcase
We turned one elder’s testimony into $350,000 for a park in New Jersey. Imagine what your name makes possible in DC. Let’s talk.