The Leimert Park Jazz Festival transformed the upper parking deck of the Baldwin Hills – Crenshaw Plaza into an incredible community experience for more than 3,000 people attending the event on Aug. 31.
On June 12, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles (LISC LA) hosted “The Art of Resilience,” an exclusive power lunch and networking event at Hotel Indigo in downtown Los Angeles.
Destination Crenshaw is shaping up to be the nation’s largest outdoor art and cultural celebration of Black contributions The highly anticipated reparative development project continues to collaborate with local leaders and talented professionals to ensure input from the community is valued and embraced from ideation to completion.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates the fifth largest banking institution’s investment in the revitalization of the Crenshaw District.
The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission approved plans on September 13, for the legendary RTN Crew, creators of the iconic 787-foot-long mural on South LA’s Crenshaw Wall, to replace their decades-old painting with a new artistic panorama, The Struggle Continues, under the auspices of the not-for-profit organization Destination Crenshaw.
Drake Dillard, AIA, NOMAC, LEED, a senior project manager of Perkins&Will, Los Angeles, announced that he is retiring from the firm following a long and illustrious career of working on noted projects like Destination Crenshaw and overseeing a wide range of commissions throughout the world, including education, civic, mixed-use, healthcare, and culture.
Marvella Steel Placers is a black and female owned family-oriented business that provides high-quality rebar and concrete installation for customers across California. Marvella Steel Placers was founded by Jacqueline Pruitt in 2016 and ever since, her business has successfully worked on numerous projects including Destination Crenshaw, Purple Line 3, and Sign Fountain – just to name a few.
Destination Crenshaw President and COO Jason W. Foster recently announced that Sankofa Park, the first major component of this $100 million public-private initiative, will open with a public celebration in early fall 2023.
South L.A.’s premiere outdoor event returns – live and in-person -with the 17th Annual Taste of Soul Family Festival on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., along Crenshaw Blvd., from Obama Blvd. to Stocker Ave.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg paid a visit to South Los Angeles on July 8, visiting ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the city of Compton. He also participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly opened “K” line, the new Crenshaw-to-LAX metro line.
Destination Crenshaw was originally conceived as a way to respond to the devastating impacts of the Metro LAX line construction project along Crenshaw and gentrification concerns around transit development.
These are the top stories of what happened in Crenshaw & Around this year.
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson was excited to be working with the Feed Your City Challenge. He mentioned how great it was to have Roddy Ricch and Mustard, who are both from the South L.A. community, help host and be hands on during the food drive. “Roddy Ricch and Mustard, they are both homeboys, they are from the community. They came up in our streets and they know how it is in the neighborhood,” says Dawson. He continues, “Once you put out the fall to give help, or get help, our community shows up. It just takes the right individuals to make the right call, set up the event, get volunteers and sponsors. LAPD is here, the fire department is here. Everybody steps up and we make it work. We make it do what it do.”
At the intersection of Crenshaw and Leimert, hundreds gathered to honor the history of Crenshaw Boulevard and Leimert Park and to celebrate the groundbreaking of Destination Park and its centerpiece; Sankofa Park.
(Courtesy Photo) While Black History Month marks a time for reflection and celebration of the past, it also provides an opportunity to envision the future. The month of February is filled with events and exhibits that uplift Black culture- from Lauren Halsey’s exhibit at David Kordansky Gallery which explores her reckonings with gentrification and the economic displacement of Black-owned businesses, to California African American Museum hosting Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy for a performance inspired by Cross Colours: Black Fashion in the 20th Century. This is a time to honor our community’s monumental impact throughout history to present day. While