A vital part of the community since 1965, the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) now has a new way to enrich the city, with the Watts Cultural Fest, which takes place once a month at WLCAC’s seven-acre campus on Central Avenue.
Tea Vickers, the organization’s cultural enrichment director, created the Fest earlier this year, with support from Wells Fargo. She says that the event updates WLCAC’s myriad of services, which include homelessness prevention, employment, senior services, and youth development, to better serve in today’s economic climate.
“Now, folks are trying to figure out ways to take care of themselves – self-sufficiency – without having to fully depend on a job: ‘How can I have a side hustle? How can I provide things that I can leave for my family?’”, she says. “And food and music and art has always been the way here in Watts.”
The Watts Culture Fest gives participants of all ages the chance to learn how to use top- grade equipment for a variety of crafts, including ceramics, embroidery, glassblowing, and screen printing, instructed by teaching artists and professionals from Watts and South L.A.
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“I wanted to launch a festival that provides a safe space for vendors,” she says. “We were seeing videos on social media where vendors were getting robbed in the streets, and that was happening all over. People were pulling up on vendors late at night… taking the things that they worked hard for.
“You can come here and learn to make something and then have a place to actually sell that,” says Vickers. “Most times, it’s one or the other – you either have a space to make things and you have to find places to sell them, or you have a place to sell things and there’s not as much culture and building or learning. I want them both here.”
The Watts Culture Fest is truly a family affair as well. Parents of students who have participated in WLCAC’s after school arts programs can now create alongside their children.
“We want our parents to treat art like they treat sports,” notes Vickers. “We thought the best way to do that is to open our workshops to everybody in the community. You’ll catch a mom and daughter or a dad and a son on the [pottery] wheel. They haven’t figured it out yet, but they’re [learning] together.”
Multigenerational creativity is a thread that runs through the Fest, down to the food vendors. Howard Harvey, owner of Magnolia St. Kitchen, turns his 12-hour smoked brisket into the ultimate L.A. street food. Last Saturday, he presided over the grill as his wife Katrina chatted with and helped their customers.
“I use half-and-half mesquite wood with hickory,” he said. “Then I chop the brisket and bring the L.A. culture into it – we do tacos, muletas, quesadillas, and vampiros.”
Harvey’s mother worked for the WLCAC for 30 years, and he also had his first job there at age 15, planting trees in the community.
“My Pops taught me to barbeque,” he said. “He passed away two years ago, so it fell on me to get this going, not only because I love it, but also to keep him alive through the process.”
Vickers’ hope for the Watts Culture Fest is that it will retain the community’s pride and keep innovation within Watts.
“I want to use this opportunity as change starts to come to the community, to push culture at the forefront and the business owners who navigate culture in this community to be the forefront of that change, and not allow them to be pushed out,” she says. “That’s what the Watts Culture Fest is about.”
