Above I (Historian and Independent Curator Alison Rose Jefferson), pose with Yazmin Monet Watkins, poet, actress, educator, organizer, and more the day she did an inspiring poetry reading public program for the “Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier” exhibition I curated at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles in June 2024. She read poems about self-love, hope, healing, understanding, and water themes from her new book, A Vessel Born to Float (Simon & Schuster) which arrives this month at your favor book sellers. See information below about buying a signed copy of the book at a Reparations Club book store event on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Photo by Karis McPherson
Since we last connected there has been a lot happening in my world to document and share hidden, overlooked and forgotten stories of African Americans and other marginalized people. I continue to join with other like-minded folks to illuminate in new public programs these stories of a broader view of those who have contributed to making California and American histories to inspire and empower folks to make our lives better today and in the future.
Join me in exploring the past and gaining inspiration to shape the present and future from all these activities, along with the books, articles and more I highlight here. Check my website for more of these musings. Also, you are invited to share this news post with your colleagues, friends and family.
Los Angeles Black History Matters!
Check out the recent Los Angeles Times Opinion piece that Catherine Gudis and I (Alison Rose Jefferson) wrote, “Kevin de Leon’s plan to rename Pershing Square is not the way to honor Black Angelenos” (July 12, 2024; PDF copy here). Our article to encourage a more in depth and thoughtful look at Black Angeleno history in Los Angeles’ civic memory was a reaction and critique of to the idea of renaming Pershing Square by City Councilmember Kevin de Leon. As we noted, “L.A. needs to reconsider civic memory beyond renaming places, removing statues and creating new commemorative efforts. This requires more comprehensive review and maintenance of past efforts.”
Join me at the Nineteenth Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar on Saturday, October 19, 2024 (2.00 PM) where I will do a presentation on the histories of the African American experience at Southern California beaches during the twentieth century. Anyone interested in the region’s history will find something of value at this day’s event presentations and booths of exhibiting institutions showcasing their collections. Presented by LA as Subject and the University of Southern California Libraries at Doheny Library, visit the Archives Bazaar webpage for more details.
2024 Highlights from the Summer and Upcoming Fall Events
“BCD” Exhibition at CAAM LA
In the last months of the “Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier” (“BCD”) exhibition curated by me, Alison Rose Jefferson, for the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles, the institution did a spotlight video with me, the curator, about the exhibition.
LAist.com’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez wrote an article, “Black Californians have been at the forefront of beach culture. A museum exhibit helps tell that history” (August 6, 2024) praising the exhibition and described two California Assembly Bills “that are in the works that would expand access for underserved communities in public leisure areas such as state parks” as “a reminder that history is still being made.”
As I mentioned earlier, the poems that Yazmin Monet Watkins read at the “BCD” public program at CAAM came from her new book, A Vessel to Float (Simon & Schuster). You can meet her and buy a signed copy of the book at The Reparations Club book store event on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 6.30 PM (Los Angeles, CA).
It was a pleasure to show retired City of Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward and his husband Bruce Siebs around the “BCD” exhibition during the KCRW Summer Nights@CAAM event on June 28. Ward was the first African American elected to the Manhattan Beach City Council. He was featured in an exhibition photograph in front of the new Bruce’s Beach sign at an event commemorating the park’s renaming in 2007. You can learn more about Ward’s role in leading the effort with local citizens to create this site of memory of the history of Bruce’s Beach and the African American experience in my book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era (University of Nebraska Press).
There were well-attended “BCD” curator tours I did on Juneteenth (June 19) and other dates which included Los Angeles Country Park and Recreation officials, creative types working on memorial and commemorative projects in the region as well as many from the general public. I was really heartened to see all these people who came out to gain knowledge at these programs.
The “BCD” exhibition illuminated African Americans in Southern California histories during the Jim Crow era and a more inclusive American identity. This exhibition visually illuminates my book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era subject matter and some of the public/applied history activities which have used these histories. Learn other information about the exhibition which closed on August 18 here and view more of the global media coverage the exhibition received and more here.
Honoring Black Pioneers in Manhattan Beach, CA
City of Manhattan Beach officials invited me, Historian Alison Rose Jefferson and members of the Cultural Club South Bay non-profit organization team to participate in a video called “Culture Club South Bay: ‘What Juneteenth Means to Me” that can be viewed on the City’s YouTube channel. In my comments I stressed that this new holiday is important for not only the Black experience, but also American history as it recognizes and celebrates the Black liberation struggles that have gone on and that we as citizens need to do much more towards making a more equitable society.
Chiany Dri, Eliza Lane and Linh Vuong, Historian Aison Rose Jefferson, and Bill Corvalan of Culture Club South Bay participated in the City of Manhattan Beach’s first officially sponsored Juneteenth celebration activities – a video called “Culture Club South Bay: ‘What Juneteenth Means to Me” that can be viewed on the City’s YouTube channel and with a booth at a festival held at Polliwog Park on June 22, 2024.
I participated with CCSB in the first official Juneteenth holiday celebration (on June 22, 2024) held by the City of Manhattan Beach which included music, food, history and family fun at Polliwog Park. From the CCSB display tent we observed several hundred people enjoying the festivities. Culture Club South Bay is a non-profit organization dedicated to shattering barriers, creating new opportunities, heritage conservation of particularly the Black experience, and enhancing beach accessibility for children age 8-13 at Bruce’s Beach in the City of Manhattan Beach. On June 22, I also joined Community Representative Jessalyn Waldron from Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s office (Second District) to celebrate the new Bruce’s Beach Commemorative Collection that was begin by a donation of African American History books by local resident and retired U.C.L.A. Professor Anthony Lee, (see photograph below this paragraph at the event.) This new collection will open many doors to knowledge for generations to come also includes my book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era that details the history of Bruce’s Beach and its Black pioneers in the City of Manhattan Beach, along with other histories.
Juneteenth (a portmanteau or blending of the words “June Nineteenth”) celebrates the end of the last vestiges of Black American enslavement when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1965 to enforce the United States Emancipation Proclamation that had ended slavery in 1863. This new holiday, Juneteenth or as it is also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day by some, was created by federal legislation in 2021.
Media Coverage Updates
Recent media coverage on the book Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, the “Black California Dreamin’…” exhibition at CAAM LA and other work.
View all media here.
More Black Los Angeles History Making Milestones
Los Angeles Times writer Jasmine Mendez (August 30, 2024) offers an overview in her recent article and links to the report and ancillary materials. Researchers document harms to Black Americans and provide reparations solutions for each harm listed. The public is invited to share specific reparations ideas in person at Working Group sessions in September to help inform the Commission’s final recommendations to City leaders.
WATCH the video conversation between actor, director, and writer Roger Guenveur Smith and director, producer, and writer Sophia Heriveaux inside the exhibition “Jean-Michel Basquiat: Made on Market Street” at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills that took place in June 2024. Smith was a friend and collaborator of Basquiat during his years in Los Angeles in the 1980s when they hung out a lot in the Venice Beach district. Smith and Heriveaux (JMB niece) discuss Basquiat’s work, his lasting impact on contemporary culture and his Los Angeles experience’s contributions to all.
During part of this time in 1980s Los Angeles, Smith also began collaborating with Ben Caldwell and other cultural producers in the Hollywatts Posse that produced experimental performances, multimedia visual projects, films, and exhibitions about personal as well as Black diasporic histories and themes. Learn more about Smith and the Hollywatts Posse in the recent book Kaos Theory: The Afro-Kosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell (Angel City Press).
Video conversation between actor, director, and writer Roger Guenveur Smith and director, producer, and writer Sophia Heriveaux inside the exhibition “Jean-Michel Basquiat: Made on Market Street” at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA, June 2024. Photo by Alison Rose Jefferson
Lastly, before you go…
Check out A Great Day in the Stoke, Saturday, September 14, 2024, 7.00 AM to 5.00 PM, Huntington Beach Pier, CA.
This now third annual surf competition is the largest gather of Black surfers and beach enthusiasts worldwide. Other fun activities will take place.
A short distance from where this event will take place, the Pacific Beach Club, a resort that was developed by African Americans in the 1920s only lasted a very short time before it was destroyed by White racist actions. Learn more about this history in my book Living the California Dream… How different things would be today in Huntington Beach if this resort persisted today.
Check out California Coastal Cleanup Day, Saturday, September 21, 2024, 9.00 AM–12 noon. This is the fortieth anniversary of this event.
The Santa Monica’s Bay Street Beach Historic District/Inkwell, the Jim Crow era African American beach gather place will be a cleanup site, near Lifeguard Tower 20. Parking available at Lot 4 South. Entrance at Bicknell Avenue.
Check out the Twenty-ninth Central Avenue Jazz Festival, Saturday, September 21, 2024, along Central Avenue between MLK Blvd. and Vernon Ave., Los Angeles, CA.
Learn more about the performer line up and other activities at the event website.
The last Pan African Beach Day of 2024 is Saturday, September 21, at Tower 50, Dockweiler State Beach., Playa del Rey, CA.
The Black Surfers Collective and partners offer free introductory surf lessons and some chill time on the beach.
Not far from this event’s location, Titus Alexander attempted to build an amusement center for African Americans at a beach area in the 1920s, but his plans were sabotaged by racist White civic leaders who mounted a months-long campaign that eventually blocked the project. Learn more about this history in my book Living the California Dream… Again, how different things might be today in this Playa del Rey area if this amusement center had been built and persisted today.
You are invited to share this news post with your colleagues, friends and family.
