African American Heritage Month

Join Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson; Mayor Karen Bass; the Los Angeles City Council; and the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to officially celebrate the exhibition installation of the work of Los Angeles photographer, Leroy Hamilton in DCA’s Henry P. Rios Gallery at Los Angeles City Hall on display from Friday, January 31, 2025 to February 26, 2025.

The Story of Us displays Black Angelenos in several dimensions of their lives—at home with family, in the conference room, on the court, in government halls of power, on the mainstage, in the streets, and in places of worship. It captures the fullness of Black life. Mr. Hamilton seeks to restore the humanity behind Black faces that are often misrepresented. Visitors will experience the full spectrum of Black personhood through the lens of a local artist with strategic connections and expansive vision.

The Story of Us is Leroy Hamilton’s exhibit which he hopes will reverberate across the country. By capturing a collection of photos of Black Angelenos, the artist hopes to draw parallels between movement building in Black Los Angeles to national Black movements. Mr. Hamilton hopes to remind visitors that there is a community photographer in every community, and we must recommit ourselves to seeking them out and uplifting their work. The photography exhibit is an ode to Black Los Angeles and all we represent in the past, present, and future–from Crenshaw to the coast, this is The Story of Us.

The exhibition is curated and coordinated by Larry Earl.

Photography Exhibition: January 31, 2025 through February 26, 2025

The exhibition is free to visit and open to the public.

Ribbon Cutting: Friday, February 7, 2025, 9:30 a.m.

This public event brings three historians of slavery together—one focused on the importance of slavery to colonial empires, one focused on captive experiences and health in the slave trade, and one focused on the introduction of African maritime culture into the Americas—to wrestle with the question: What actually happened in 1619?

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.

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

Learn about Los Angeles-based artist Betye Saar’s assemblage art and discover how to integrate her work into your K-12 curriculum. Hear from curator Lauren Cross about Betye Saar’s recent installation at The Huntington, Drifting Toward Twilight. Explore her artistic process and the meaning behind the work, which speaks to racial oppression, mysticism, family, memory, and identity.

Join the library for a chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.

This in-person workshop will guide you through the Tenant Power Toolkit, an online resource that helps tenants create an answer (a legal response to their case) that raises the defenses they might have against the eviction. All attendees must bring their Summons and Complaint-Unlawful Detainer to the workshop. Tenants can get one-on-one assistance in both English and Spanish.