The new National Museum of African American History and Culture had its first event last night. Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom was a ceremony to kick off the countdown to the museum’s opening next fall.

The view of the building was partially blocked by the construction equipment and the grandstand for the invited guests for the ceremony, but the projections were still amazingly powerful, and surprising how well the projections worked on the copper lattice panels. The crowd enjoyed the view from the hillside outside of the construction enclosure.

The video projection was created by Quixotic Entertainment collaborating with documentary filmmaker Stanley J. Nelson. Prior to the video projection, there were speeches by the museum director Lonnie Bunch III, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, plus singing by Bebe Winans and other music and poetry readings. Here is Muriel Bowser projected on one of the large video screens: