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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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Jamael Dean behind a piano | Still from "The New West Coast Jazz" ab s11
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Mekala Session breaks down Jamael Dean's prowess and lineage in jazz.
Bird's eye view of Mekala Session's drum set | Still from "The New West Coast Jazz" ab s11
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Mekala Session shares his views on what jazz is and what it can do, informed Horace Tapscott's perspective on music's role in society. It is Black American classical music that can teach and empower people.
Detail of Consequences (2018), acrylic and gold leaf on wood panel 24 x 18 | Courtesy of Mark Steven Greenfield
The time is more than ripe to see Mark Steven Greenfield’s “Black Madonna,” a new suite of paintings and drawings that meditate on the fraught, violent history of Africans brought to America against their will.
"Bitter Crop," Alison Saar, 2018 | Courtesy of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, Claremont, CA
Powerful images of Black women have featured prominently in Saar’s work for decades. This fall, three institutions will show her work in a time when it’s more relevant than ever.
A mosaic of the Lula Washington Dance Company in different poses performing "Lift Every Voice" | Still from "Dance Break" Southland Sessions
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Lula Washington Dance Company performs a powerful work.
 A young woman performs in "Hold On" | Screenshot of "Hold On"
Aussie filmmaker Pip Cowley rounded up a powerful cast of dancers for a performance of "Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)" by Gil Scott-Heron in support of Black Lives Matter.
Maura Townsend's "Pendulum (A Call for Change)," 2014. | Courtesy of BlakTinx Dance Festival
“Dancing on the Edge,” an online dance festival, showcases the creative voices of Black and Latinx choreographers.
A little boy looks up at two masked figures at the 2017 edition of the Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks. | Photo by Sahra Sulaiman, Courtesy of LA Commons
Some handmade masks protect you from viruses; others honor ancestral wisdom. 
Dominique Purdy pushing a stroller in Koreatown | Still from "Southland Sessions" E5: Musical Expansions in Quarantine
Dominique Purdy, the Koreatown oddity, speaks about living in historic times as a Black father, making music for his daughter. 
POT customers participate in shop’s activities | Rikki Wright
POT feels inviting to those who might feel most unwelcome at other pottery studios in Los Angeles — people of color, queer people and people who have never picked up clay or sat down at a wheel. 
Rosie Lee Hooks | Courtesy of Watts Towers Arts Center
From performing with an ensemble to working at the Smithsonian to mentoring Watts youth (including a young Nipsey Hussle), WTAC's advocate has done it all and keeps fighting for her adopted neighborhood.
April Bey, "COMPLY (Borg Feminism)," 2018. | Courtesy of the artist.
In recent weeks, artists have found their practices upturned, expanded or reenergized because of COVID-19 and calls to address racial injustice.
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