12th Annual
Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
at the Leimert Park Art Walk
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Welcome to our 12th installment of Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks at the Leimert Park Art Walk. As we still struggle with the global pandemic, this year’s theme, Unity + Legacy = Healing brings the community together to connect to ancestors and the related strategies and practices from across the African Diaspora to promote healing, wellness, intergenerational connection and a strengthened sense of belonging.
Leimert Park's Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks is an annual celebration of our ancestors and an invocation for the South Central LA community. Founded in 2010 by artists Najite Agindotan and Ben Caldwell in collaboration with LA Commons, Festival of Masks is a multicultural, multigenerationa arts event that champions the vast identities of the African diaspora.
Thank you for joining us! Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks is the artistic culmination of months of work to explore art and ideas and connect to the African diaspora through a procession and festival on the streets of Leimert Park Village, the cultural heart of Black Los Angeles. Artists and culture bearers lead workshops inviting people of all ages to spend time communing with their ancestors, making masks and giant puppets and learning movement, rhythm and song. Festival day is a joyful spectacle and spiritual experience that uplifts individual expression and collective creativity and brings the community together across generations, in a celebration of multiplicity and unity.
This year, after two years online due to COVID, we are back in person with a special emphasis on healing and uplifting specific members of our community who have passed on. Organizational partners have named ancestors to venerate in a community wide remembrance wholly in keeping with the values that have been at the heart of Day of the Ancestors since the beginning as we engage local artists and culture bearers in leading the collective creative process and involving local youth as apprentices, learning from these creators with a focus on the cultural traditions powering the practice. We recognize our young people as visionaries, and support them in developing skills and resilience to create the future.
We welcome your participation! Share with us how you have been connecting to the culture this year and how your ancestors help you to live well in the present.
We invite you to join in the blessing and libation ceremony, invoking community reflection and healing, in the procession through our streets, symbolizing the people's power and capacity to take ownership over our communities, address challenges, and create change and in the performances following. In the words of this year’s Artistic Director, Tamica Washington-Miller, we are exploring the connections from ancestral African roots through slavery, to the Black churches, hip-hop and vogue dance cyphers of today and creating a time to be fully human, to be fully expressive, to cry, to hollar/shout, to laugh, to move, to share news. To mourn. To celebrate. We all need this more than ever.
Share your ancestor stories, mask pictures, community love, cultural inspiration and tag:
LA COMMONS
Headquartered in Leimert Park, LA Commons, a project of Community Partners, works in neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles facilitating issue-driven public art projects that inspire creativity in everyone. We engage communities in artistic and cultural expression that tells their unique stories and serve as a basis for dialogue, interaction, understanding and organizing for a more just and equitable Los Angeles.
LEIMERT PARK ARTWALK
Leimert Park Village has a long history of being the center of African American arts and culture. Held on the last Sunday of each month, Leimert Park Artwalk invites the public to share a day of art exhibitions, music, fashion, food, drumming, spoken word, and local shopping. Throughout the day, cultural spaces, artist studios, and storefronts in the village also have offerings ranging from free computer seminars and specialty vendors to film screenings, youth theater performances, and live bands.
ANCESTORS
Five Leimert Park neighbor organizations nominated ancestors to honor at
the 2022 Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
The World Stage honoring
Noni Olabisi
Powerful Artist Activist
artwork by Man One
One of LA’s most significant muralists of the last 30 years, Noni Olabisi created works that lift up the people’s voices and illuminate the streets and alleys of Los Angeles with power and love. Her art is seen and enjoyed by thousands at William Grant Still Art Center, Angeles Mesa Library, CD 8 offices, Augustus Hawkins High School and other locations. In an artist statement Noni wrote, “The Yellow Dot on mostly everything I paint is a representation of the Sun within as well as without.”
Leimert Park Jazz Festival and Sutro Avenue Block Club honoring
Derf Reklaw
Multi-Talented Musical Genius
artwork by Wendell Wiggins
Born in Chicago, prodigiously talented Derf Recklaw was dubbed “Mr Encyclopedia” by classmates and friends. Although he started on the flute, he became an incredible and sought after multi-instrumentalist who made it big in his hometown playing with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Phil Upchurch and Donny Hathaway but became even bigger when he moved to LA in 1979. He toured with major talents including Aretha Franklin, released critically acclaimed albums, was featured in movies and was a beloved fixture in his Leimert Park neighborhood.
Leimert Park Merchants Association honoring
Barbara Morrison
Beloved International Jazz Legend
artwork by Kayla Shelton
Michigan born Barbara Morrison began lighting up the stage at age 10 with a radio gig in Detroit. Coming to LA in 1973, she launched a 5 decade singing career that saw her recording and performing around the world with a who's who of musical luminaries including Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Johnny Otis, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Etta James and Lou Rawls. Despite her fame, she loved being part of the Leimert Park community where the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center will continue her legacy.
Black Women for Wellness honoring
Veronica Mayes Jackson
Kitchen Diva
artwork by Raycasso
Veronica Mayes Jackson was the founder of Black Women for Wellness’ Kitchen Diva program, a lynchpin in the organization's commitment to furthering the health and well-being of Black women and girls through health education, empowerment and advocacy. She was an amazing proponent of community-based cooking classes guiding her students in preparing and taste-testing delicious and healthy appetizers, meals, and desserts while learning about food purchasing, ways to extend food shelf life and other ways cooking can further wellness.
Loretta Jones
Passionate Health Equity Advocate
Loretta Jones founded Healthy African American Families in 1992 based on her personal commitment to improving lives. She also worked as associate director of an institute at UCLA where in 2017, she was awarded the university’s highest honor, the UCLA Medal. Chancellor Gene Block said, “By addressing health disparities and promoting health equity — insisting that good health should be a right for all, not just a privilege for the lucky few — she has raised the public profile of healthcare access as a true social justice issue.”
Lark Galloway-Gilliam
Inspiring Visionary and Community Organizer
Lark Galloway-Gilliam, inspired by the 1992 LA Rebellion, founded Community Health Councils to address the growing health crisis in her South LA community with planning, resource development and policy education. Her emphasis was to engage communities and strengthen the connections among organizations in order to eliminate health disparities. She was a Principal Investigator on several National and Federal grants, published and peer reviewed in a number of local, national and global health periodicals and served as an advisor to a host of institutions around the world.
ECWA(Empowerment Congress West Area Neighborhood Development Council) honoring
James F. Jones Jr.
Barrier Breaking Engineer
artwork by Wendell Wiggins
Despite almost insurmountable odds, James F Jones Jr. became the first Black engineer hired at Lockheed Martin. Arriving home from the service, he wanted an engineering degree from the University of Arizona. He fought an administration that believed “your people do better as teachers ” and was finally accepted, graduating first in his class. Offered a job in LA, he discovered, on arrival, the position was “filled” because of his race. He persistently went to Lockheed Martin paving the way for all the other Black engineers that followed.
UNITY + LEGACY = HEALING
2022 Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
at the Leimert Park Art Walk
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Noon
BLESSING
Land Acknowledgement: Tamica Washington-Miller
Blessing and Libations: Imodoye Shabazz
Call to Engage with Purpose: Rene Fisher-Mims
1:00 PM
PROCESSION
We continue in the tradition of stopping at the FOUR Corners and giving an offering of acknowledgment and celebration, a call to action, and a prayer or vision for the future of our city.
Egungun
Malik Sow, Master Drummer
Fode Sissoko, Stilter and Master Drummer
Kehinde
Unity, Legacy and Healing Masks, Sankofa Youth Leaders
Daansekou, Daunte Fyall
The World Stage - Honoring Noni Olabisi
Banner by artist Man One
S.H.I.N.E. Muwasi
Friends and family of Noni Olabisi
Leimert Park Jazz Festival and Sutro Block Club - Honoring Derf Reklaw
Banner by artist Wendell Wiggins
Leimert Park Jazz Festival
Sutro Block Club
Dwight Trible and “folk”
Friends and family of Derf Reklaw
Leimert Park Merchants Association - Honoring Barbara Morrison
Banner by artist Kayla Shelton
The Harmony Project Drumline, Malia Pinkard, Program Director
Timothy Morganfield, The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Friends and family of Barbara Morrison
Black Women for Wellness - Honoring Veronica Mayes Johnson, Loretta Jones, and Lark Galloway-Gilliam
Banner by artist Raycasso
Black Women for Wellness, Jan Robinson Flint, Executive Director
Lula Washington Dance Theatre - Youth Dance Ensemble
Friends and family of Veronica Mayes Johnson, Loretta Jones, and Lark Galloway-Gilliam
ECWA - Honoring James F. Jones Jr.
Banner by artist Wendell Wiggins
New Orleans Brass Band
Torrence Brannon Reese
Everything with Soul
Marie Kellier, Carnival of the Caribbean
2:00 - 4:00PM
PERFORMANCE
Host: Gina M. Fields
Karen Mack, LA Commons
Ben Caldwell, KAOS Network
Barbara Fant, Poet
BLACK WOMEN FOR WELLNESS
Honors Veronica Mayes Jackson, Loretta Jones, Lark Gilliam
Lula Washington Dance Theater - Youth Dance Ensemble
THE WORLD STAGE
Honors Noni Olabisi
S.H.I.N.E. Muwasi, Rene Fisher-Mims
LEIMERT PARK JAZZ FESTIVAL
Honors Derf Reklaw
Dwight Trible and Trio
LEIMERT PARK MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION
Honors Barbara Morrison
Sylvia Boyd and Trio
ECWA (Empowerment Congress West Area)
Honors James F. Jones Jr
Torrence Brannon-Reese and Everything with Soul
Following the Mask Festival, stay on in Leimert Park for
The Rhythm Arts Alliance, Jahanna Blunt
presents
DUNUNBA
DUNUNBA (or Doundounba) is a traditional West African rhythm and dance known as the dance of the strong man. Performed in a community circle, it showcases the heritage and culture of Africans and African Americans and the values of strength, agility, vitality, connection, communication, creativity and holistic health. Highly significant, it has been practiced for many centuries by various ethnic groups in West Africa (this version hails from Guinea) and brings the community together to showcase the artists and uplift shared values and traditions.
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BODY, MIND, SPIRIT SATURDAY WORKSHOPS
FACILITATORS AND PARTNERS
Crenshaw Walks
Dr. Randall Henry, Founder and Chief of Community Intelligence
Wellness Workshops
May 14: Sound Meditation with Britt Blackwell
May 21: Yoga with Chelsea Gabrielle and Crenshaw Yoga and Dance
May 28: Meditation with Anbiya Smith
June 4: Breath Work with Akua Danielle
June 11: Ayurveda and Mind-Body Connection through Nature with Dr. Kadiatou Sibi
June 18: African Adornment with Elzariyah G.
June 25: Hair Ceremony with Nappily Naturals
West African Dance
Daunté "KINGTAE" Fyall and DAANSEKOU
Ancestor Mask Making
Ranika Adachi
Maria Elena Cruz
African Drumming with Mama Nene
Rene Fisher-Mims, Founder of S.H.I.N.E. Muwasi
at the World Stage
FESTIVAL OF MASKS WORKSHOPS
Youth Mentor
Anbiya Smith
Sankofa Youth Leaders
Aisha Cooper
Marquell Eason
Nichole Jones
Jenny Lopes
Kimoni Z. Oliver
Tyler Denise
Amara Ceriah McDuffie
Jade Isaac Newsome
Zaire Pitamba Thurston
Denise Courseault
Naomi Rush
Clearance McDuffie III
Azza Spivey
Noah Rush
Renee Wiggins
Senseni Ma'at
Nalini Sadler
Rodrigo G. Pineda
Indeya Eubank
Kennady Bob
Daniel Rush
Miracle Varnado
2022 MASK FESTIVAL LEADERSHIP CIRCLE
Ranika Adachi
Ben Caldwell
Rene Fisher-Mims
Tasha Hunter
Karen Mack
Toran X. Moore
Pastor Kelvin Sauls
2022 MASK FESTIVAL PROJECT TEAM
Tamica Washington-Miller, Mask Festival Artistic Director
Joyce Maddox, Mask Festival Event/Production Manager
Tasha Hunter, Mask Festival Procession Manager
Shani Hogan, Mask Festival Production Coordinator
David Jackson, Instrument Audio Services, Sound and Audio
Melanesia Hunter, Leimert Park Cultural Organizer
Imani Fullwilder, Leimert Park Cultural Organizer
LA Commons Staff
Karen Mack, Executive Director
Afrika Bakenra, Operations Specialist
Angel Ponce, Program Intern
Beth Peterson, Community Arts Program Director
Blaze Bautista, Executive Assistant
Elizabeth Cho, Program Manager - Partnerships
Hannah Chua, Operations and Research Associate
Jackie Hernandez, Senior Cultural Organizer
Kaitwan Jackson, Program Manager - Promise Zone Arts South LA
Leslie Tamaribuchi, Operations and Strategy Director
Maeve Atkinson, Development and Campaign Coordinator
Susie Garcia, Operations Coordinator
SPECIAL THANKS
Erika Cabrera-Moriyama
Joyce Guy
Nickie Johnson-Ahorlu
Malik Sow
Los Angeles Third Church for Spiritual Living
The Office for support through Artists at Work, their visionary workforce resilience program designed to support the rebuilding of healthy communities through artistic civic engagement. Learn more about artist Kayla Shelton's Leimert Park Residency with partner Community Intelligence and Rene Fisher-Mims Leimert Park Residency with partner Wellnest.
PARTNERS
ECWANDC, Gina Fields
Leimert Jazz Festival and Block Club, Diane Robertson
The World Stage, Dwight Trible and Rene Fisher-Mims
Black Women for Wellness, Janette Robinson Flint
Leimert Park Merchants Association, Adé E. Neff
FUNDERS
County of Los Angeles Department of Arts and Culture
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Kaiser Permanente
LA CARE
California Wellness
Artists At Work
ECWANDC