Kevito Clark (Courtesy Photo)

2025 is the year of community and Kevito Clark, founder of Love, Peace, & Spades (LP&S), is facilitating free, donation-based community game night throughout Los Angeles. Operating as Love, Peace & Games: Play It Forward, a rather fly 501(c)(3), LP&S answers the call for the increased need for interactive spaces that promote leisure, play, health, and wellness, as well as the preservation of Black family traditions like spades, tonk, bid whist, and dominoes.

Love, Peace, & Spades has hosted over 7,000 attendees in less than two years and has gone on to be recognized in The Los Angeles Times, Travel Weekly, Fox 11, and KCAL News, for creating a hub for intergenerational communion and education through gameplay. LP&S has addressed issues around social isolation, while forming relationships with local Black-owned businesses, educators, and game designers.

In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Sentinel, Kevito Clark as well as Shani Burton, Rob Ford, Jennie Wright, and Jocelyn C. Chambers, discuss their involvement with LP&S and their journey through community, LP&S’ positive impact, and plans for the new year.

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Love, Peace & Games: Play It Forward™, a Black-led education initiative and 501(c)(3). Focused on analyzing how culturally rich games can decrease the negative impacts of isolation, become a transformational power of play to all ages, and increase the connection to Black America’s shared history, regardless of their zip code or socioeconomic status.

Love, Peace, & Spades Event at the LINE Hotel. (Jason Armond)

Clark hails from Brooklyn, New York, by way of Akron and Kent, Ohio, and has spent the last two years living in Leimert Park. He established community quickly as the Communications Chair with Still Rising and got involved with the beloved Juneteenth festival. After Fred McNeill Jr. invited him to a game night at Johnny’s Pastrami in West L.A., Clark began his transition from media professional to community creative with spades, education, and wellness as his focus.

He shared, “I met Jennie Wright at the Line Hotel, we had mapped out an idea for a game night that was centered around education, wellness, leisure, and play. Our initial conversations turned into reality with what you see now with LP&S Spades Academy. We hosted our first game on her birthday, December 21, 2022, and I think what we bring to L.A. specifically is a hush harbor where people can exist away from the white gaze and not feel ‘other’ with a community and collect of people who look like them to enjoy these culturally rich games.”

Wright is the Hospitality Brand Strategist and Marketing Consultant at The LINE Hotel and connected with Clark during her first year in the role. As she was developing the programming for the hotel, she wanted to implement elements of her core values with the company in a way that was both collaborative and uniquely special. When asked about her LP&S journey, she reiterated the importance of community.

“When this idea was brought to me it touched on all our values. This was a great opportunity to establish this event utilizing the LINE Hotel’s lobby with the focus on community and collaboration, which are some of our major values and brought everything together. We created something special that we’ve successfully done now every first Wednesday of the month. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a space with autonomy and partner with people who are exceptional and the programming we’re doing here is special. This experience has allowed us to bring people together like the hotel guests, the patrons, and other people that come here to discover something new.”

LP&S’ Creative Tech Officer Rob Ford has been instrumental in organizing each monthly game night with precision, care, and intention. Ford helped revamp their intake and registration process for players and volunteers, assisted in streamlining the collection of feedback, facilitated raffle participation, and helped players quickly find partners to maximize their playing time during events. His natural affinity for data and customer service made attendees feel welcomed and respected.

Players at a Love, Peace, & Spades Event at the LINE Hotel. (Jason Armond)

“Sometimes folks come in and they don’t have a partner to play with. We’re creating an environment that allows people to quickly figure that out. I would tell people when they arrived and found a partner to come back and see me for the next steps. I’ve noticed that when people were taken care of, they’d return to say thank you. Focusing on the intake process and making sure that people feel comfortable right when they arrive, we can ensure a great time and positively encourage others to do the same.”

BLK Events LA founder and frequent collaborator with LP&S, Jocelyn C. Chambers, a passionate advocate for Black spaces throughout the city. Chambers has curated multiple community walks and events to support Black-owned businesses. She describes LP&S as the highlight reel of a family cookout. Her spades journey began when she was younger and her experience with the game has grown since being a part of LP&S.

“I played spades when I was quite young. There was a huge 10-year plus gap and ultimately going to LP&S where I learned how to play again. It’s so easy to find a player to play with when you don’t come there with someone. 75% of the time I’m showing up by myself and I feel confident because I know I’ll have a new experience playing with someone whether they’re a beginner or if they’ve been playing longer than I’ve been alive. I know I’m going to learn something. I’ve gone from being a baby beginner to becoming an intermediate player, LP&S has impacted the quality of life that I have in Los Angeles. I’ve always been able to bring spades back to the table with my family in Texas. To create those core memories with them is so important to me, and I truly owe that to the core memories I’ve made with Love, Peace, & Spades.”

Baldwin Hills native and host of The Friends with Businesses podcast, Shani Burton, is a longtime LP&S attendee and shares a similar experience as Chambers with her relationship to the culturally rich game of spades.

“I had a 17-year-long gap of playing spades. I learned how to play in ninth grade, and I hadn’t played in a long time because of the reputation spades had for being a real serious game where we slam cards and flip tables, and sometimes you’re judged for not knowing how to play and no one sits down to teach you. You might be able to watch and pick up on it but you need someone to sit down with you and teach you how to play spades respectfully and with patience. I love Love, Peace, & Spades so much for that.”
Since the top of the year Los Angeles has made community a huge priority by highlighting support, connection, and tradition. Love, Peace, & Spades has made its mark on the city with no plans of slowing down. In every sense of the word, “the people’s game night” is fulfilling and enhances L.A. culture.

LP & S recently renewed their residency at The LINE Hotel, to improve and expand their outreach outside of its current attendance base. Love, Peace & Games: Play It Forward, has developed to formalize and preserve these games as Black family heirlooms, with board members including Camille “iLL Camille” Davis, Paris McCoy, community organizers DaMareo Cooper, and academic superstars Dr. Corliss Outley, Clemson University, LP&S is disrupting game nights with intentionality, purpose, and the goal of passing the game on to the next generation.

The next event will take place on Wednesday, February 5, to jumpstart Black History Month and honor the playful traditions of our ancestors.

To learn more about Love, Peace, & Games: Play It Forward and how to get involved, visit lovepeaceandspades.com. Follow Love, Peace, & Spades on Instagram and TikTok at @lovepeaceandspades.