Beyond Dodger Stadium: L.A.’s Community Leagues Panel Discussion

The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) presents a panel discussion about the history and presence of Los Angeles' Latino, African-American, and Japanese-American baseball leagues.

WHO: The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), located on Los Angeles’ historic Museum Row, is the city’s only institution exclusively dedicated to celebrating craft, design, and folk art. CAFAM’s dynamic exhibitions feature established and emerging artists whose work is rooted in both traditional and contemporary craft and design. CAFAM is a venue that makes art accessible to all audiences and serves as a forum in which art can be presented and described by the artists and communities who create it.

For current program and exhibition information, visit www.cafam.org.

WHEN: August 9 (Thursday) — 7:00 p.m.

WHAT: Los Angeles has a long and rich tradition of minority baseball leagues that have been playing outside the starry confines of Dodger Stadium for generations. Learn about the history of L.A.'s Latino, African-American, and Japanese-American leagues with a panel of historians and community leaders.

Panelists

Daryl Russell Grigsby is a writer, baseball historian, and community activist. He has authored several books, including Celebrating Ourselves: African-Americans and the Promise of Baseball, which examines how baseball is intricately woven in the fabric of African-American family, social, and political life. Grigsby is founder and first President of San Diego African-American Writers & Artists and currently serves as Public Works Director for the City of Pomona.

Terry Cannon founded the Baseball Reliquary in 1996, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the prism of baseball and to exploring the national pastime’s unlimited creative possibilities.  He co-authored the recently-published book, Mexican-American Baseball in the Inland Empire. Cannon works as a Staff Assistant for the Pasadena Public Library.

Bobby Umemoto is an L.A. native who attended Marshall High School and Oregon State University, and worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 34 years. Since 1961, he has played for and/or managed the Los Angeles-based Li’l Tokio Giants, one of the oldest continuous teams in Japanese-American baseball history. Umemoto has been a board member of the Nisei Athletic Union (NAU) since the mid-1960s.

Tomas J. Benitez has been active in the arts and culture community for over 35 years and is the former Executive Director of Self-Help Graphics & Art. Tomas acted early in his career but has spent most of his creative life as a writer. He wrote SALSA! (Cannon Films, 1988), and he has written for Starz Encore, CBS, PBS and Fred Roos Productions. He is a lifelong baseball fan and writer and has been an advisor to the Latino Baseball History Project of The Baseball Reliquary since it’s inception in 2005.

 Admission: $7 Non-members / Free for CAFAM Members

WHERE: Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 90036

BONUS:

•             Refreshments will be provided.

•             Gallery access starting at 6:30 p.m. for the exhibitions Baseball: The All-American Game and Ehren Tool: Production or Destruction.