The Elephant Free School opens Oct. 10 in Shaw, filling a gap left when the Shaw Community Center shut down in October 2025.

The new school plans to launch with a fall festival at Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ on 11th Street NW, The Washington Informer reported. Programming will include creative writing, yoga, tai chi, capoeira, art, theater and gardening classes geared toward working-class Black residents of all ages.

Founder Dominic T. Moulden, who served Shaw as a tenant organizer roughly 40 years ago, told the Informer he returned to fill a community gap and build political, cultural and educational power in the neighborhood.

The school moves into a storied building. Lincoln Temple housed the Shaw Community Center, which served more than 120 young people through after-school and summer programs for over three decades. The center ceased operations in October 2025 amid board leadership tensions and funding shortfalls.

An anonymous former board member told the Informer that the center's over-reliance on foundation grants left it exposed when that funding shrank. The board had not cultivated individual donors or other revenue sources.

Rayne White, a District fifth grader and the youngest of three siblings in one of Shaw's remaining Black families, spent years at the center during after-school hours and breaks. She told the Informer the closure left her summer empty. "It's been boring, it's been sad," she said. "I miss my friends, I miss all the teachers there."

Rayne's mother, Javon Dabney, worked at the center and sat on its board for more than two decades. Dabney told the Informer the closure broke a family apart. The center had taken kids on field trips to the National Zoo, Massanutten Resort in Virginia and Great Wolf Lodge in Maryland.

The Elephant Free School, active since 2020, has organized communities worldwide around land control and solidarity economics. At Lincoln Temple, it will also house a community library featuring Moulden's ethnographic photography dating to the mid-1980s. Grassroots organizations can apply for grants to run their own programs in the space.

Khadijah Huggins-El, a mother of three and longtime Shaw resident, serves as building operations manager. She plans to lead walking tours highlighting Lincoln Temple's historic ties to figures including Alexander Crummell, Marian Anderson, Roberta Flack and Julian Bond.

The Center for Social Housing and Public Investment, founded by former tenant association attorney Will Merrifield, will also operate out of the building. Merrifield told the Informer the think tank aims to produce a housing development guide shaped by working-class Black Shaw residents within one to one-and-a-half years.

Upcoming

• Saturday, Oct. 10 — The Elephant Free School fall festival and programming launch, Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ, 11th Street NW