Exhibition

George Washington Carver was a pioneer of plant-based engineering and one of the nation’s earliest proponents of sustainable agriculture. In the early 1900s, he built his “Jesup Wagon,” a moveable school to share soil and plant samples, equipment, and other agricultural knowledge with farmers. Carver’s then-radical ideas—including organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and plant-based medicines, and construction materials—are now recognized as the forerunners of modern conservation.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice considers Black image making as a site of protest, contestation, affirmation, and possibility. At CAAM, Fazlalizadeh will present a series of portraits of Black Angelenos wheat-pasted across the atrium’s monumental walls. Based on photographs and conversations that took place this spring while the artist was living in Los Angeles, the portraits ask how safety is inferred, built, and felt for the city’s Black residents.

Ben Caldwell envisioned cinema as an instrument that could heal and emancipate. In 1984, he opened KAOS Network, the media arts hub that has helped steward Leimert Park Village’s traditions of Black artistry, fellowship, and love for over four decades. This multimedia exhibition explores Caldwell’s varied practices of photography, film, video, music, performance, community-based design, and interactive media and celebrates the creative life and communities of KAOS Network.

The Boyz N the Hood gallery explores the movie’s groundbreaking depiction of Black life in South Central Los Angeles and its lasting impact on popular culture. It spotlights the cast and crew–including Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, and Angela Bassett–showing the pivotal role the film played not only in their careers but also for a new generation of Black talent in Hollywood.

The PAFF ArtFEST showcases over 100 established and emerging artists and craftspeople from around the world, focusing on artistic expressions rooted in Africa and its Diaspora. Featured works include oil paintings, watercolors, ceramics, jewelry, fashion, home decor, and more, highlighting both fine art and unique crafts.

The Intra-American Slave Trade Database is a resource for the study of the African diaspora in the Americas. Launched online in 2018, it documents more than 27,000 voyages that trafficked enslaved Africans and African-descended people from one part of the Americas to another from 1550 to 1860. This database strengthens research throughout the University of California system on the history and impact of the slave trade and slavery in the Americas by connecting scholarship on the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds.

Mayor Karen Bass; Dr. Lura Daniels-Ball, President, Our Authors Study Club, Inc.; Cynthia Exum, President, Leimert Village Park Book Festival; Los Angeles City Council President, Marqueece Harris-Dawson Councilmember, Eighth District; Bob Blumenfield, Councilmember, Third District; Curren D. Price, Jr., Councilmember, Ninth District; Heather Hutt, Councilmember, Tenth District; the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA); Yvonne Wheeler, President Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, General Chair, Our Authors Study Club 2025 African American Heritage Month; and, the Our Authors Study Club 2025 African American Heritage Month Committee invite you to attend an Afternoon with African American Authors.

Our Authors Study Club, Inc. (OASC) and the Leimert Park Village Book Fair hosts the opportunity to hear firsthand from award-winning actor, director and #1 best-selling author Courtney Bernard Vance as he discusses his book The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power. Along with professional expertise from famed psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith (popularly known as “Dr. Robin”), Courtney B. Vance explores issues of grief, relationships, identity, and race through the telling of his own most formative experiences. A unique combination of moving memoir and practical tools that offers guidance for Black men seeking to reclaim their mental well-being–and, ultimately, to live wholeheartedly.

The presentation will be moderated by William Allen Young, actor, director and philanthropist who has starred in over 100 television, stage, and film projects, including two Academy Award-nominated films, A Soldier’s Story and District 9. 2025 OASC Living Legend Awards will be presented to both Mr. Vance and Mr. Young in honor of their body of work, leadership and personal philanthropy.

Los Angeles Public Library – Mark Taper Auditorium

Parking is $1.00 with a Los Angeles Public Library card in the garage beneath the library, the entrance is on 5th Street. Come early and sign up for your library card if you do not already have one.

The Crenshaw Dairy Mart (CDM) is thrilled to announce its forthcoming exhibition, Free the Land! Free the People! a study of the abolitionist pod, as part of the PST ART: Art & Science Collide. This groundbreaking exhibition showcases CDM’s innovative approach to addressing systemic issues through art, architecture, and science. In 2021, CDM began prototyping and building abolitionist pods – autonomously irrigated, solar-powered gardens within modular geodesic domes – with communities impacted by food insecurity, housing insecurity, and the prison industrial complex.

An in-depth installation of Jean-Michel Basquiat features all 13 works by the artist in the Broad collection, including three works on view for the first time at The Broad: Santo 2, Deaf, and Wicker.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays – 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Thursdays – 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.,
Saturdays and Sundays 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Michael Jackson’s fashion sense has always been iconic. Our display of original artifacts on loan from the Michael Jackson estate showcases memorable pieces, including beaded jackets Jackson wore during the Jacksons’ 1984 Victory tour. Also featured is our original short film about making Jackson’s Thriller music video.

Sundays & Mondays, Wednesdays – Fridays 11:00 noon – 5:00 p.m.
Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.