Leimert Park arts center auditions princesses and frogs for South LA production



Director Brandon Rainey sat behind a piano in a practice room at the Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center — a nonprofit in Leimert Park that provides free music and arts classes — and asked the 11-year-old girl standing in front of him to yell. Aiyana Lopez-Spaari responded with a shriek. Aiyana is one of many girls who are auditioning for the part of Princess Tiana in Rainey’s live-musical adaptation of the Disney film, “The Princess and the Frog.”

The idea of putting the first Disney film to have a Black princess on a stage in an area known as an enclave of Black culture in Los Angeles originated with a conversation between Rainey and Fernando Pullum, the nonprofit’s founder, late last year.

After working with high school students on productions such as “The Lion King” and “Dreamgirls,” they both wanted to work with elementary and middle-school-age children.

“We wanted to give back to the younger generation with the production,” said Rainey. “It’s a reminder to little girls across the community that they’re princesses and they can have dreams and standards too.”

See also on Intersections: Leimert Park’s World Stage fights eviction

[Read more…]

Earlez Grille relocates to make way for Crenshaw/LAX line



Earlez sign | Ela Bernal

Earlez Grille sign at Crenshaw and Exposition. | Ela Bernal

There’s something special about a place that adapts to changing times while remaining true to its origins. For more than 25 years, Earlez Grille in the Crenshaw district has done just that.

Earlez owner Duane Earl said his secret recipes for hot dogs, burgers and chili have less to do with ingredients than simply “paying attention to how you cook” and using “common sense.” Oh, and one more thing: “People can tell when you don’t put love into food.”

Hear the sizzle of the Earlez grill in an audio piece from Annenberg Radio News:

[Read more…]

Vergee’s Palace de Bella Donna hair salon prepares for Leimert Park changes



Vergee’s Palace de Bella Donna is one of several small businesses concerned that the expansion of Metro’s Crenshaw/LAX line will drive them out of business. The hair salon is a cultural icon in the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Leimert Park. Owner Vergie Huddleston has been there for several decades and says construction of the line would not only endanger her business but also many others in the area.

Huddleston has led many apprentices to become hair stylists and has also raised foster children. She says the most important thing in her life is to continue doing just that, fulfilling her mission to help the many young people who seek her guidance to succeed. And of course, to pass on the legacy of her unique way of hairstyling.

 

Read more about Leimert Park on Intersections: 

Leimert Park art renaissance in bloom at Papillion gallery

Metro’s Crenshaw/LAX line brings promise of jobs, revitalization to South LA

Leimert Park envisions the neighborhood in 2020

Leimert Park Phone Company debuts reinvented pay phones

Leimert Park art renaissance in bloom at Papillion gallery



Art by | Stephanie Monte

Art by Raksha Parekh at Papillion. | Stephanie Monte

“L.A. is a beautiful flower of art right now,” said San Pedro-based artist Stephen Scheffle at the opening Saturday of Papillion. The contemporary gallery and the newest addition to Leimert Park Village, part of local efforts to restore the neighborhood’s reputation as an African-American artistic hub.

Papillion’s first exhibit, called “OPEN,” showcases the work of artists at the beginning of their careers from all over the world: the U.S., Great Britain, South Africa and Angola. “OPEN” features a variety of fine art elements, including sculpture, drawings, paintings, installations and digital media.

In the main room, you’ll find an installation of caramelized sugar cane paper that hangs like rope, created by South African-born Raksha Parekh. Each string of actual sugar cane is carefully tied and aligned to create boat shapes, meant to symbolize slave ships that were used in trade, Parekh said. For her, Papillion’s opening show is about re-emergence.

Jeffrey Deitch, former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, said the exhibition shows artists “creating a fresh vision.” “This is just the beginning of something very big in this neighborhood and in the art world,” he said. “It will get international attention.”

Michelle Papillion, the gallery owner, said in a press release that she chose Leimert Park because the neighborhood has “its finger on the pulse” of the arts scene both locally and globally. “The historic, artistic and culturally rich legacy that this community has built is unmatched anywhere else in the city,” she said.

The building was once home to the Brockman Gallery, one of the first places to exhibit Black art in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In the next few years Papillion aims to promote Leimert Park’s art renaissance by introducing a wave of emerging and high profile artists working together.

Visit Papillion at 4336 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90008. Its hours are 12 – 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and by appointment. “OPEN” runs through April 13.


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Leimert Park envisions the neighborhood in 2020



Brenda Shockley of Community Build addresses the audience| Photo credit: Sinduja Rangarajan

Brenda Shockley of Community Build addresses the audience. | Sinduja Rangarajan

Community members and leaders share the same bold vision for Leimert Park: By the time the Crenshaw/LAX Metro line links Leimert Park with Inglewood, the Los Angeles International Airport and other parts of the city six years from now, they envision their South Los Angeles neighborhood evolving into a tourist destination that showcases African-American arts and culture.

More than 150 people — a mix of architects, urban planners, activists, artists, bankers, realtors, lawmakers and local residents — began assembling as early as 8 a.m. Saturday at the historic Vision Theatre to discuss what they could do to shape the future of Leimert Park.

Last year the Metro Board approved to construction of a Leimert Park Village station on the Crenshaw/LAX Metro line. Since then, property owners reportedly have been bumping up real estate prices and forcing long-time commercial tenants out of business. Eviction notices sent to the iconic World Stage Theater by a real estate company in November prompted the neighborhood to come together to preserve this African-American cultural hub.

“Our property is going to have a lot more value than it does today,” said Roland Wiley, a community organizer and owner of the architectural and urban planning firm RAW International . “A lot more people will be interested in living where you live. A lot more people will be happy if you can’t pay your mortgage anymore and you gotta sell.” [Read more…]

Leimert Park Phone Company debuts reinvented pay phones



Pay phone protoype

Pay phone protoype. | Stephanie Monte

At the forefront of remixed technology, transmedia, and community storytelling, the Leimert Park Phone Company seeks to create new forms of civic engagement simply by re-purposing old pay phones.

Leimert Park glimpsed the future Saturday outside the historic Vision Theatre at the unveiling of the first reinvented phone.

The fire-engine red prototype is equipped with a microphone, loud speaker, tablet device and electrical outlets. The public was invited to pick up the receiver and share as well as hear stories about the history and culture of Leimert Park.

To project participant Ben Caldwell, director of media arts organization KAOS Network, the old objects have potential.

“Discarded pay phones are portals for community storytelling and to preserve our history,” he said. KAOS Network has been a community staple for more than 30 years helping develop local artists develop multi-media and design skills.

Caldwell is one of a group of Leimert Park community members, artists and musicians who have worked with 30 USC students and faculty on the project since 2012. It began with a series of workshops geared for brainstorming and rapid-prototyping – “hacking” the pay phone to find ways the device could be programmed to record sound or create its own WiFi network.

François Bar, a USC Communication professor, helped acquire the phones. He also posed a key question: “How do you change the objects that are on the sidewalk so they can interact with the people that live there?” Leimert Park’s unique street life would offer an ideal opportunity for experimentation, he decided.

“Many people live outside, there’s a lot of interaction — life from the sidewalk that’s very different from other parts of this city,” said Bar.

Art work for the Leimert Park Phone Company

Art work for the Leimert Park Phone Company. | Stephanie Monte

Leimert Park has been a key artistic and cultural hub for L.A.’s African-American community. Residents and business owners have recently begun to worry that that developers will drive them out by buying property and blasting up the rent, now that a Metro Line is slated for a Leimert Park station.

Some say a few old-fashioned pay phones could be just the thing to help stimulate business within the community as well as generate civic engagement.

Pick up the receiver and you’ll hear: “Press ‘one’ to hear a story about Leimert Park. Press ‘two’ to leave a story. Press ‘three’ to hear the history. Press ‘four’ to hear the music of Leimert Park.”

The project, still in its soft-launch, operates with a small computer called “Raspberry Pi,” which uses an ARM processor, runs Linux and costs about $35. Programmers said it’s ideal for embedding in a pay phone because it’s cheap, flexible and can detect and send voltage changes.

Electrical engineer Wesley Groves made the two outlets encased in flexible plastic tubing that let users plug in USB cables such as phone chargers. He said the pay phone was designed to look attractive.

“As you’re walking down the street and you look at this, your eyes begin to communicate with the object… Then you’ll walk over to it, maybe interact with it, and more people will come,” said Groves. “It creates its’ own communication field.”

His wife Collette Foster Groves, who lives in nearby Ladera Heights, said the phone plays with innovation and technology in mystical, magical ways.

“It’s great to see such art and technology fused together, recycled and repurposed especially for a historical function,” she said. “They should call it the smart phone because of all the ways it can be used.”

Historic Visions Theatre in Leimert Park

The historic Visions Theatre in Leimert Park. | Stephanie Monte

Attendee Janice Villarosa also supported the idea of making art “instead of throwing something out,” and said she thinks learning about Leimert Park’s history will “build more community.”

Andrea James, a frequent Leimert Park visitor, said this kind of project is long overdue to help people understand the neighborhood’s history and struggle.

“This is really the last area that people of Black culture can call their own in the city of Los Angeles,” said James.

For now, the prototype phone is too fragile to be left on the sidewalk. But the Leimert Park Phone Company says it’s planning a permanent installation by January, perhaps with the help of local business owners.

For more, visit http://leimertphonecompany.net.


The Vision Theatre in Leimert Park. View larger map.

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Leimert Park’s World Stage fights eviction



The World Stage in Leimert Park -- co-founded by poet Kamau Daàood and legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins -- faces an uncertain future.

The World Stage, co-founded by poet Kamau Daàood and legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins, faces an uncertain future. | Brianna Sacks

Founded in 1989, The World Stage has become the cornerstone for Leimert Park, L.A.’s historic hub for African-American arts and culture.

The World Stage’s jam sessions, jazz performances, youth groups and writing workshop have been a model for countless other nonprofit literary arts groups around Southern California and the nation, according to KCET. It has also churned out some of the nation’s most famous jazz musicians and poets over its 25 years.

Last May, Leimert Park found out that its two-year fight for a metro stop on the incoming Crenshaw/LAX line would become a reality.

Shortly after, the World Stage’s owners and their neighbors learned that the building had been sold and eviction notices were handed out to the stage and many other businesses.

[Read more…]

Chef Jeff Henderson returns to native South LA



Chef Jeff signs a copy of his newest book at Eso Won Books.

Chef Jeff signs a copy of his newest book at Eso Won Books. | Anna-Catherine Brigida

When Eddie Joebishop heard his old friend-turned-celebrity chef Jeff Henderson on the radio promoting a book signing, he scribbled down the address of Eso Won Books in Leimert Park and traveled the 40 miles from his home to hear him speak Monday night.

Read a Q&A with Henderson about his new book, “12 Street-Smart Recipes for Success,” here on Intersections.

[Read more…]

‘Hey Obama…where you at?’ 600 days and still no justice for Trayvon Martin



On October 16, the grassroots civil rights campaign, Fight for Soul of the Cities, led a rally featuring drums, spoken word, and song in Leimert Park, seeking justice for Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old boy who, 600 days ago, was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida.

Youth from Boyle Heights sharing their appreciation for the events of the day.

Youth from Boyle Heights sharing their appreciation for the events of the day.

“Is it my hoodie or my skin that’s probable cause/ For my people being slain by these racist laws?” youth from as far as Boyle Heights chanted at the community speak out, demanding the Obama administration do a full civil rights investigation and indictment of Zimmerman and the Sanford Police Department.  A jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder charges in July 2013.

“The administration has not yet brought civil rights charges against either Zimmerman or Sanford, Florida Police Department, the indictment of the police being essential to confront this institutional form of racism,” said chair of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, Sunyoung Yang. [Read more…]

Leimert Park targeted by investors



Metro’s new light rail stop in Leimert Park could bring an end to L.A.’s historic African-American cultural hub. After three years of fighting to get the line to stop in the area, business owners now fear the area will be commercialized. About a dozen of Black businesses in the area have been notified that their leases won’t be renewed after investors started buying buildings in the area.

Laura Hendrix, owner of Gallery Plus, in Leimert Park.

Laura Hendrix, owner of Gallery Plus, in Leimert Park. | Brianna Sacks

Laura Hendrix has owned an art store called Gallery Plus in Leimert Park for 23 years. While the owner of her space has not changed, she says many businesses around her have left or might be kicked out after investment companies recently bought several buildings housing multiple units.

“We are on edge because we don’t know what is going to happen to us,” said Hendrix. “This is a cultural icon and we worked hard to get it like this and want to keep it that way.” [Read more…]