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Black Arts Matter

Black arts bear witness to centuries of fight not flight. See how their rich legacies continue to rally this nation’s spirit in pursuit of justice and joy.

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Tommy Mitchell's "Spread Your Wings, Fran," 2020. Ballpoint pen, acrylic on paper, Mounted on Panel | Courtesy of Band of Vices.jpg
The team behind Band of Vices has been a longtime champion of bringing diverse artists into the fold.
Carla Jay Harris "Sphinx," 2019. Archival pigment print. Two panels, 40 x 30 in. each. The work features a beautiful Black woman wearing a dark blue dress kneeling down in a golden meadow under a starry sky and bright orange sun. | Courtesy the artist
Learn more about the spaces filling the holes left behind by the historically white-centric L.A. art world.
Aerial view of Watts Towers Arts Center | Still from "Watts Towers Arts Center" ab s11
Meet the core artists who were the vanguards of the West Coast edition of the Black Arts Movement: Betye Saar, Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge and Jayne Cortez.
Mural at Mafundi Institute | Still from "Broken Bread" Watts
An arts movement emerged in ‘60s Watts. In response, federal and local law enforcement enacted counterinsurgency programs that infiltrated and co-opted Black arts and culture institutions and surveilled and targeted activists, artists and community member
A group of performers dance and drum at the Day of the Drum Festival at the Watts Towers Arts Center. | Still from "Southland Sessions" " Watts Towers Festivals"
The Watts Towers Day of the Drum and Simon Rodia Jazz Festivals have been bringing together cultures for generations.
Bruce Lemon Jr. playing with youth during a rehearsal break of " A Jordan Downs Illumination."| Nancy Keystone
Today, a cadre of local activists and artists in Watts are using storytelling and human relationships to promote change, justice, equality and communal values.
Les Uniques Social Club initiation ceremony of new officers at the Buckman home in Santa Monica, 1954. | Persil Lewis. Courtesy of the Quinn Research Center
“We get it all the time — people come up to us and say, ‘We didn't know that Black people live in Santa Monica,” Carolyne Edwards said. “And there was a huge population there.”
Watts Towers Arts Center's Unusual View of Arts Education
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Noah Purifoy talks about how arts education could be a way forward.
The Life, Death and Afterlife of '66 Signs of Neon'
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"66 Signs of Neon" was an eye opening installation that traveled the country.
The Sun Ra Arkestra at the Detroit Jazz Center on December 31, 1979 in Detroit, Michigan. | Leni Sinclair/Getty Images
Sometimes cool and sophisticated and other times volcanic and primordial, jazz is at once spiritually mindful and a raised fist in protest, inspiring us to push beyond limitations and imagine a brighter tomorrow.
A black and white photograph of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra during a New Year's Eve 2019 performance. Mekala Sessions is in the foreground. | Samantha Lee ab s11
The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is an instrument for self-determined socio-political thought in action. Its tenets are now taken up by a new generation of musicians.
Erin Christovale | Paley Fairman
How can museums and other arts institutions support Black creatives? For Erin Christovale, it's a little more radical than just hiring Black and buying Black.
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