LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 26, 2024 – – Ngozi wears the appropriate Kwanzaa wear and a smile at the 48th edition of the Kwanzaa parade to mark the start of the seven-day African-American festival in the Crenshaw District in Los Angeles on December 26, 2024. The Kwanzaa Gwaride started at Adams and Crenshaw boulevards and headed south on Crenshaw Boulevard for two miles to Leimert Park, where a festival was held from 1 to 5 p.m. Organizers say that this parade in Los Angeles is the world’s oldest Kwanzaa parade. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Attention Editor: Ngozi only goes by her first name.
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
California has 14 officially designated cultural districts. None of them recognize Black culture.
State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas wants to change that. Her district includes South Los Angeles, commonly known as South Central. On June 19th, in recognition of the Juneteenth national holiday of Black freedom, she will annouce her continuing efforts at establishing the Historic South L.A. Black Cultural District in partnership with LA Commons, a South L.A.-based nonprofit arts and cultural organization.
The proposed cultural district would be bordered by Adams Boulevard to the north, Manchester Boulevard to the South, Central Avenue to the east, and La Brea Avenue to the West. Smallwood-Cuevas has obtained $3 million in state funding for the City of Los Angeles to support the project. These funds will go toward the installation of yet to be determined cultural markers and monuments throughout the district, celebrating South L.A.’s historic Black assets–Crenshaw Corridor, Leimert Park, Historic Central Avenue–and reinforcing its role as a cornerstone of Black cultural identity in California.
Formal recognition as a cultural district is a vital step toward addressing historic inequities and ensuring cultural treasures are protected and celebrated. South L.A. is home to the highest concentration of Black cultural assets in California, including museums, local businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues. Lula Washington Dance Theater, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Dulan’s on Crenshaw soul food restaurant, Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center, Nipsey Hustle Square.
South L.A. also hosts the largest middle-class Black community in the country.
How many people know that about an area more often than not characterized in American mass media and popular culture for gang violence? That’s the popular story. It’s not the complete story.
“Our work in general is all about story, community stories,” L.A. Commons founder and Executive Director Karen Mack told Forbes.com. “Our perspective on this cultural district is that its value is in uplifting the amazing stories of Black people throughout the history of Los Angeles.”
How many people know that among the 44 Mexican settlers who founded Los Angeles in 1781, 26 were of African descent? L.A. was founded by Black people.
“That is the beginning of the story, and it just gets more amazing from there,” Mack said. “Black people have contributed so much to the history of Los Angeles, and we’ve got a (presidential) administration trying to erase the contributions of Black people.”
Along with the environment, arts and culture, health care, foreign aid, trans rights, voting rights, civil rights, public education, and higher education, the Trump Administration has made assaulting, defaming, and defunding Black History a high priority.
The Trump administration has attempted to discredit Jackie Robinson’s military service, expunge Harriett Tubman from official government histories of the Underground Railroad, and remove dozens of books by Black authors from the U.S. Naval Academy.
“At a time when truth is up for grabs, the truth is in us, the opportunity to listen to each other’s stories where that truth resides so that we feel more grounded in the reality our existence,” Mack explained. “We are in an existential time, and it is through those connections that we can feel a sense of comfort.”
In an effort to find the truth about South L.A. through listening, and envision shaping a future where Black culture is centered in how Los Angeles grows and tells its story, LA Commons hosted a series of story summits over the past year-plus, engaging the community to share stories about South L.A. and what they think is important to uplift. Key themes from the story summits included showcasing historical significance, celebrating cultural identity, recognizing social challenges and triumphs, and manifesting visions for the future. The findings have likewise been released today in coordination with Smallwood-Cuevas’ announcement. The report will help guide the design, emphasis, and funding for the proposed cultural district.
“One of the challenges of our time is how we create a stronger sense of belonging, because that is really the foundation for strong neighborhoods and a functioning society,” Mack said. “When people get beyond the caricatures and the stereotypes to really hear people’s authentic stories, that is when they start to feel that connection because we’re all human, we all have similar experiences, and the beauty of every life is compelling.”
LA Commons’ mission is creating a shared understanding of Los Angeles. That’s challenging for a metro area covering over 500 square miles, 90 distinct municipalities, and nearly 20 million people across mountains, beach, extreme wealth, and Skid Row.
Black, white, Mexican, Latino, Indigenous, Korean, Palestinian. You name it. Los Angeles’ two existing cultural districts are Little Tokyo and Chinatown.
The California Arts Council will be adopting 10 more cultural districts this fall and has recognized its shortcomings in honoring places of significance to African Americans.
Day Of The Ancestors: Festival Of Masks
Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks.
LA Commons
As momentum for the Cultural District grows, LA Commons, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, continues to lead and foster community connection through its annual signature event, Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks. Taking place on Sunday, June 29th in Leimert Park, this vibrant celebration of African diaspora culture through art, performance, ritual, and a sacred procession will welcome a special appearance by Smallwood-Cuevas, reinforcing the district’s significance and inviting the public to take part in this celebratory movement.
The event began in 2010 when a neighborhood leader from Nigeria, Najite Agindotan, presented an idea to the community for recognizing ancestors.
“The African worldview tends to not see separation between the dead and the living, and so (the Festival) is to facilitate that connection,” Mack explained.
LA Commons helped found the celebration.
This year, seven ancestors will be honored, up from the traditional five, allowing space for loved ones from Altadena who died in the wildfires there earlier in 2025. Altadena’s 20 miles northeast of Leimert Park and also features a large Black artist community.
Alonzo Davis, a beloved South L.A. cultural leader who along with his brother, Dale, opened Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park in 1967, will also be among the recognized with a huge mask walked in a large procession accompanied by performers and musicians.
South L.A. Welcomes The World
In the summer of 2026, Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium will host men’s World Cup matches. In 2027, it will host the Super Bowl. Again. In 2028, Summer Olympics events will be held at the venue bordering South L.A. That’s in addition to its regular schedule of major sporting events and concerts, and crowds brought in by the adjacent Hollywood Park mega-development and Intuit Dome.
South L.A. wants to capitalize on being positioned as a gateway to these attractions. The proposed cultural district is one way it’s doing so, but that’s not the only way.
Destination Crenshaw is a “reparative development project and will be the largest Black public art project in the U.S.” Playgrounds, parks, more than 100 artworks by Black artists with ties to LA, beautification, business development.
The project’s centerpiece, Sankofa Park, is a 1.3 mile, open air, arts, culture, and Black history museum positioned along the Crenshaw/LAX airport light rail K Line that has and will take millions of Angelenos and tourists to and from LAX airport into town via Crenshaw Boulevard–the heart of South L.A. and the proposed cultural district. Sankofa is a word of West African origin relating to going back when moving forward. Returning to roots when planning for the future.
In May of 2025, L.A. Metro opened the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor, a 5.5-mile multi-modal path and green space in South L.A. The path repurposed unused and blighted railroad tracks to connect the communities serviced by the Metro K Line, the Metro J Line, and the Metro A Line Slauson Station via biking and walking paths.
Beginning at the intersection of 67th Street and 11th Avenue near the Metro K Line Fairview Heights Station, the path moves east to its current terminus at Slauson Station on the Metro A Line. The $166-million project marks an investment in the communities in and around South L.A. and injects new life and vibrancy into a historically disadvantaged area.
Shepard Fairey mural at Manual Arts Senior High School in South Los Angeles produced in partnership with Branded Arts and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Jonathan Furlong
Visitors and residents will even notice two recently spruced up South L.A. high schools. Nationwide artistic services company Branded Arts partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to bring week-long art festivals to Manual Arts Senior High School and Augustus F. Hawkins High School in May 2025.
The festivals invited leading contemporary artists from around the nation to mentor students, provide career advice, and make art. Among the artworks, enormous murals gracing the schools, further distinguishing South L.A. as one of America’s most robust cultural communities.
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