CURRENT POSITION House Production Operations Manager, Library of Congress, Washington, DC DEGREE Duke Ellington School of the Arts, 2000 FAST FACT HaileSelassie likes to re-create cooking show competitions in his kitchen, complete with timer. FOLLOW Instagram @solobromo; bit.ly/LC-Concerts; bit.ly/GayMensChorusDCBoard Photo by Katherine Davidovich

A Lizzo Visit

In 2019, Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden was planning a radio interview at the same time that singer, songwriter, and rapper Lizzo was doing a round of publicity. Solomon HaileSelassie suggested that Hayden invite Lizzo—a classically trained flutist—to the Library of Congress (LC) to see its Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, which contains nearly 1,700 flutes and related materials dating back to the 16th century. Hayden asked him to pursue the idea, but nothing came of it at the time.

In 2022, HaileSelassie learned that Lizzo was coming to DC as part of her Special Tour. He reached out to her again, this time with a new proposal. “It was kind of a big ask for someone who only has three days in between big concerts,” he recalls. “We’ve got to have a really great reason for her to come to the library.” His plan was not only to bring Lizzo to see the flutes, but have her actually perform with one.

After HaileSelassie discussed the idea with colleagues, they proposed that Lizzo play a rare 1937 Plexiglass flute, one of only a few still in existence. Dr. Hayden sent a tweet with photos of several flutes, which caught Lizzo’s attention, and she agreed to visit.

A visit from Lizzo required considerable logistics involving DC’s Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department, and Capitol One arena security, but all was in place in less than a day. Lizzo showed intense interest in the collection during her tour, HaileSelassie says. When they came to a set of crystal flutes, she wondered aloud how they could even be played. Staff brought out one presented to President James Madison on the occasion of his second inauguration in 1813 and assembled it for her. She turned to HaileSelassie and asked to play that one rather than the Plexiglass model; at press time, a YouTube video of the performance had more than 580,000 views. Lizzo’s visit generated heightened interest not just in the flutes, but in the wide variety of collections housed at LC.

Asked if he’d like to invite another superstar to LC, HaileSelassie notes that Beyoncé is coming to dc later in 2023. More than these high-profile guests, he says, he’d like a young person to come and engage with the library, and “then 20 years later find out that that experience changed their life.”