African American Heritage Month

America’s suburbs are undergoing significant transformation. The traditional view of suburbs as predominantly white, middle-class areas no longer reflects reality. Today, they encompass a diverse mix of residents—rich and poor, Black, Latino, Asian, immigrants, and the unhoused. This shift is especially evident in Los Angeles, where many suburbs have become majority-minority. The New Suburbia explores the experiences of Asian Americans, Black Americans, and Latinos who moved into formerly exclusive neighborhoods.

In 1759, the Diamond sailed to unspecified ports in the Americas, Jamaica, Panama, Colombia, and more unspecified destinations in what was then known as the Spanish Caribbean, embarking and disembarking human cargo as part of the slave trade. The Diamond serves as an entry point into a discussion of the movement of Africans and African-descended captives to the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea-bordered regions, the ocean memory of those human cargo lost to the voyages through the Americas, and how that loss reverberates into the present.

Stream films on Kanopy or Hoopla, both on-demand streaming film services. They both have an extensive library of African American cinema and documentaries that are free with your Los Angeles City or Los Angeles County library card.

kanopy.com/en/category/40898?frontend=kui

 hoopladigital.com

The Los Angeles Public Library and the Los Angeles County Library cards give you access to many resources, including two amazing online music collections. Freegal features unlimited songs, and Hoopla lets you check out full albums. These two databases have endless amounts of music from the African and African American diaspora to explore, from famous hits to underground sounds.

hoopladigital.com/search?q=African+American+music&scope=everything&type=direct&kindId=6

freegalmusic.com

One of the most sought-after and revered saxophonists of her generation, Lakecia Benjamin, was voted 2020 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and was nominated for three 2024 Grammy Awards. Benjamin is known for her
charisma and ability to fuse jazz, hip-hop, and soul. This intimate onstage Jazz Club performance will be highlighted with selections from her four studio albums performed by her quartet, Phoenix.

Marseille, 1941: A liner sails for Martinique with artists and intellectuals on board fleeing from Vichy France, including surrealist André Breton, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, Communist novelist Victor Serge, and exiled German author Anna Seghers. The journey mixes history with fiction, augments reality, and invites other celebrated figures to join this new kind of ark, an allegory of all past and present forced expeditions.

Come see the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus close-up through telescopes. Weather permitting, the Sidewalk Astronomers will set up telescopes outside the library for everyone to view the night sky. Bring your questions.

Join the library for an interactive drum workshop that focuses on the importance of drums in our society, past and present. Participants are allowed to express themselves on a percussive instrument. The goal is to get total group interaction and stimulate (non-verbal) communication so that we learn more about each other and our cultures through the experience of drumming.

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.