Grand Reopening of the Museum of African American Art

The newly renovated Museum of African American Art will reopen on Sunday, June 1st, with an exciting new exhibit by Buena Johnson!  Enjoy live music, poetry, and light refreshments at our grand reopening!  Artist BUENA JOHNSON is widely recognized for her legendary jazz, blues, and gospel fine art as well as her many commissioned portraits.  The Museum of African American Art is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization located on the 3rd floor in the Macy Building of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

 

GRAND REOPENING
SUNDAY, JUNE 1st
2:00 – 5:00 pm

 

HELP View Park Become Listed as a Historic Place on the National Registry!

 

“Since the early 1920s, View Park, CA has been one of the most prominent neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Today, the area ranks among the wealthiest African American communities in the country. View Park Conservancy aims to maintain its prestige.”

 View Park Conservancy started with a mission to preserve the multi-generational legacy, historic homes and cultural values of View Park, CA and surrounding neighborhoods.  Our organization is dedicated to the proliferation of property values and the continued growth of the historical significance of View Park. Our flagship initiative is to get View Park listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, a valuable distinction that increases our property values, attracts great businesses and maintains the prominent legacy of our neighborhood for years to come.Property values in View Park have experienced a long depression due to the lack of amenities and historic status. View Park Conservancy aims to maintain the amazing legacy of our neighborhood and protect it from rapid unwanted change, but we cannot achieve our goals alone.  View Park Conservancy aims to preserve the rich neighborhood heritage and legacy of View Park, CA through outreach, restoration and research.

Donate TODAY!

View Park Conservancy

Moving Black Power Beyond Limitations

 

Hosted at Dorsey High School February 28th, Moving Black Power Beyond Limitations: From Black Wall Street To Civil Rights To Now.  Mediated by Dr. Melina Abdullah, Professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies at CSU-LA, this is sure to be highly educational and enlightening experience.  Make sure your there, Dorsey High School Auditorium, February 28th,  6:30pm – 8:30pm.

Baldwin Hills Dam Failure…….Celebration!?!

Sooooo there was a Baldwin Hills Reservoir where Kenneth Hahn Recreational Park currently resides, well somehow a break in one of the sides gave way eventually leading to five deaths, did you know that?  Back in 1963 at the top of Baldwin Hills sat a large reservoir (filled with water) that (they say) was constructed wrong in an environment with seismic activity going on.  Well sent to us from the Office of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, there seems to be a 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Dam Failure.  Well the celebration seems to come from the formation of the Baldwin Hills Park Lands, not the 5 people that died in the wake of the dam breaking and water raging down the hill at extremely high speeds.  Well save the date, Saturday, December 14, 2013, at Janice’s Green Valley 11am – 4pm (the former dam site) in Kenneth Hahn Park.

Check out this Live Footage of the Dam Breaking:

Baldwin Hills Dam Failure

Know Your History: Inkwell Beach and Black Surfers

Yes we do exist, black surfers that is.  I myself definitely still considered a beginner, but ya boy can catch a couple of waves, was always more of a boogie boarder tho.  I had to make sure I featured the history of Inkwell Beach, a popular African American Beach back in the days of segregation.  I also wanted to make sure to recognize other (prolly way more experienced than myself) Black surfers.

The beach near this site between Bay and Bicknell Streets, known by some as the Ink Well, was an important gathering place for African-Americans long after racial restrictions on public beaches were abandoned in 1927.  “African-American groups from Santa Monica, Venice and Los Angeles, as early as the 1920s to the end of the Jim Crow era in the 1950s, preferred to enjoy the sun and surf here because they encountered less racial harassment than at other Southland beaches.  “In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldon, a Santa MonicaHigh School student and the first documented black surfer, taught himself how to surf here.’

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Inkwell Beach

Inkwell Beach Memorial 

SoCal Black Suffer Association

International Black Surfers

 

TODAY! “What Do We Tell Our Sons?”

In light of the Trayvon Martin case, Atty. Jaaye Person-Lynn will moderate a panel tonight: What Do We Tell Our Sons? Please don’t miss this forum from the legal perspective! Don’t let your sons and daughters navigate Los Angeles without these details! Sponsored by Black Women Lawyers, Inc., and N.A.N.

Today! Thursday, August 15, from 5-8pm, (light refreshments from 5-6pm and discussion from 6-8pm), at First AME Church, 2270 S. Harvard Blvd., LA, CA 90018, our legal community will communicate the law as it relates to the Zimmerman verdict in Florida and racial profiling in California.

This is forum is your legal community in action, doing our part to ensure that Trayvon Martin’s, Kendrick McDade’s, Oscar Grant’s, and the many others unnecessary deaths will not be in vein.  Knowledge is Power and gives Confidence.  This is literally the type of knowledge that saves lives! I look forward to seeing you.

How Do I Get There?

The Next Prince of Monaco May Be Black

Yeap! Not sure if you guys may have come by this information but with all this royal talk might as well slide this in too, long story, short  back in 2003 the Prince Albert of Monaco got in real quick with Nicole Coste, at the time, a Air France flight attendant and produced Prince Alberts first son Alexandre Coste.  This is actually Prince Albert’s second illegitimate child, a girl by a real estate agent, I believe back in 1997.  Nicole Coste who is a citizen of Togo–a  British colonized African nation seems to have full custody at this point and I believe the father has to see his soon from a far, probably more or so by the royal family’s choice.  However provided what Nicole had to go thru, (just the media attention alone, not even thinking about what schemes or pressure the royal family probably put on her) to prove that Prince Albert was the father, if she didn’t want him to see the kid I wouldn’t blame her.  Forgive the blurriness of the picture but its hard to find a good picture of the boy and his mother together.  Now given the source I listed below, they say that boy will not be in line to become the next Prince, no explanation of why but that the kid would be entitled to the same inheritance, just like Prince Albert’s other kids.

Black Prince of Monaco 

Prince Albert may have a THIRD love child

Random But Awesome!

Randomly came across this information this morning, The city of New York constructed a memorial to the African Burial Ground in Foley Square.   Set at the center of a fountain, and rising nearly 50 feet into the air, this black granite abstract monument is derived from the antelope forms of Bambaran art. The horizontal boat-like feature that supports the sculpture alludes to the “Middle Passage” of the slave trade. The monument is built near the site of a Colonial-era African-American burial ground. Random but if your ever in New York take a gander.

Honoring the African American Experience in New York

14th Annual Black College Expo Returns To LA

The 14^th Annual Black College Expo Returns to LA February 2^nd and as someone who was accepted to Hampton University on the spot (Black Collge Expo Oakland 2005) I definitely recommend making the trip to all High School Students.  Younger students can get a feel for what is necessary to get into their ideal schools and older students with all the necessary documents can be accepted on the spot to certain schools.  Helping over 375,000 students get into college and giving away over $500,000 in scholarships The Black College Expo will take place on Saturday, February 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Make sure you have all the requirements necessary for your school, dress professional and you can have your college acceptance on the spot.  I had to go up to Oakland because after attending the LA Expo I didn’t do my personal statement, thinking since I was doing an on the spot interview I didn’t need it, WRONG.  The next week it was in Oakland so along with having a wonderful supportive mother, I prepared my personal statement and was on the road to Oakland the next weekend.  Now I am Hampton University Alum, Thanks Black College Expo!

Black College Expo

Los AngelesBlackCollege Expo

African American Firefighter Museum Celebrates 15 Years

Did you know there was a African American Firefighter Museum in Los Angeles? Yea, I know, right? Well located at 1401 South Central Ave., Los Angeles, CA lies a very kind of awesome looking old Firehouse that houses the African American Firefighter Museum, which opened up shop December 13, 1997 and has been completely volunteer based ever since.  The dedication of the museum, which is an historical landmark also served as an acknowledgement of “what was believed to be the city’s first 100 years of service by African American Firefighters (1897-1997).”  The AAFM celebrated the big 15 last Saturday with a little Gala at he City Club on Bunker Hill.  Looks like I got some site seeing on Central to checkout #AAFM #SouthLA.

15th Anniversary Gala for AFFM

The African American Firefighter Museum