Special Challenge #66: What's Going On...Now [Brought to you by the Kennedy Center, please read this post before submitting]

I know many of you have seen posts from the mods about something very special coming up. Well your wait is over. Thanks to artsedge-y, the person in charge of the digital learning program at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, all of us have the opportunity to be awesome redditors and contribute our skills to something amazing and maybe even get a prize for it. Read below for artsedge-y's explanation.

From the Kennedy Center: Here’s the backstory: In May of 1971, musician Marvin Gaye released the album What’s Going On. A year later, he performed it at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Since 2011, the Kennedy Center has lead a national conversation and celebration around this landmark work. In May 2012, we are bringing the concert home to the Concert Hall stage, along with the voices and reflections of people who have answered the question, "What’s Going On…Now?"

At its core, the project asks people to think about Marvin’s “then” and our “now,” then reflect on the issues he explored on the album and respond through their own creative work. That work should capture and comment on themes of Marvin’s record: war, poverty, addiction, the issues of returning vets, personal truth... The full list—as well as details on the album tracks and much more—can be found here: http://whatsgoingonnow.org/think.

This project has been in the works across the country, in and out of schools, since January. Of all the work submitted, we are curating only the best onto our Web site at whatsgoingonnow.org. In addition to the Web site, we’ll be integrating the images, music and video work onto screens across the Kennedy Center during our celebration events May 1-4. Here is a little more on that: http://whatsgoingonnow.org/about-project

We are excited to work with the redditors here in r/picturechallenge to open this up in a new way. We’ve adapted the campaign a bit for to fit in with the community here.

Here’s how it works:

• Using the themes and songs on Marvin Gaye's album, submit a picture that you think truly represents the "What's Going On...Now" idea.

• The Challenge will follow most of the regular community guidelines for r/PictureChallenge. (changes noted below)

• There will be 3 winners for this challenge. Once these winners are chosen by the community, the photographers will be asked to formally submit their entry through the What’s Going On…Now Web site (go to Create, then click on Share for details). By submitting it there, you are agreeing to abide by the guidelines and the Kennedy Center’s legal stuff. International submissions are allowed despite what this page says.

• Those 3 winners will get a copy of the 40th Anniversary Box Set, as well as having their work shown at the Center in May.

Rule Changes:

• Given our K-12 audiences, we would prefer you to not submit content that would be considered NSFW.

• We are only using Flickr to hold our “final pool”—the submissions here can go anywhere

• Pictures can be taken at any time. There will be no need to worry about [OCD] but please keep it to one submission for this week.

Many thanks for considering to participate. If you have any questions, we are happy to answer them! Just send us the usual message here and if need be, we can pass it onto atsedge-y.

As of now, the challenge will conclude on Sunday, April 8th unless an extension seems like a good idea.

We as mods are all very excited to be working with such a prestigious artistic organization. I will never stop realizing that if it wasn't for all of you amazing photographers, this subreddit would be no where. Always remember my most important rule for this subreddit, "have fun".