14th Annual Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
at the Leimert Park Art Walk
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Welcome to our 14th installment of Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks at the Leimert Park Art Walk. This year’s theme, Bese Saka: Our Wealth is Our Togetherness, pays homage to outstanding community members who have passed on with a day of creative expression that engages the entire Los Angeles community in a celebration that honors all they left behind. In the ancient Adinkra symbolic system, “Bese Saka,” or ‘sack full of cola nuts’ represents wealth, affluence, and unity.
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, multigenerational arts event that champions the vast identities of the African diaspora.
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.
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.
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
Leimert Park Village uplifted six ancestors to honor at
the 2024 Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
Portrait by Sculptor Tina Allen
Lady Walquer Vereen was a dancer, performer, teacher, and co-founder of the Dance Collective at 4327 S. Degnan Blvd. Lady Walquer was instrumental in carrying forward the Katherine Dunham technique in modern dance. Lady Walquer’s opulence and prolific legacy of community building highlight the richness that unfolds when we celebrate and dance together.
Artwork by Enk One
Alfred and Bernice Ligon were the proprietors and owners of the Aquarian Bookshop and Aquarian Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, CA, the longest continuously owned black bookstore in the U.S. The Aquarian Bookshop held a robust collection of books, journals, media, art, and related materials from more than half a century representing history, culture, philosophy, and the life of African Americans and the African Diaspora in Los Angeles. The Ligons' legacy as bearers of historical and spiritual knowledge reminds us to look to the past and to look within for riches untold.
Artwork by Aise Born
John Outterbridge was a world renowned American Assemblage artist and community activist who lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. He was the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center for 17 years and made powerful sculptures from items usually dismissed as junk — a means of exploring loaded social issues and celebrating a history of African-American resourcefulness.
Portrait by Patrick Johnson
Snake Doctor was a legendary Leimert Park artist, philosopher, and master jeweler. His creations and musings uplifted the exuberance and style found in daily life. His tutelage and words of wisdom to the youth, community folk, and passersby are gems that live on in the community. Snake Doctor’s legacy embodies the treasures and wealth of connection and storytelling that live on from generation to generation.
Portrait by Jazzmyne Reese
Harold Hambrick, Jr. a.k.a. “The Bull'' was a businessman and influential healthcare advocate for residents of low-income communities in South LA. Harold Hambrick was the President of the LA Black Business Expo, Vice President of the Watts Health Foundation, and President of the Watts United Credit Union that made the rebirth of the Mfundi Institute possible. Harold Hambrick’s legacy of advocacy and business prowess reminds us that our wealth is our health!
Portrait by Mohammed Mubarak
Artist, master jeweler, community activist and business owner Sika Dwimfo, known as the “Baba of Leimert Park” moved to Los Angeles when he was 31 years old. He became a cornerstone of the Leimert Park community and, since 1992, owned and operated Sika Gallery on Degnan Boulevard. The shop, stocked with jewelry made by Sika, racks of dashikis, beaded necklaces, Ghanaian baskets and Mali mudcloth, weathered the 1992 riots, economic downturns, changing demographics and, more recently, rapid gentrification and the COVID-19 shutdown.
Bese Saka
Our Wealth is Our Togetherness
2024 Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
at the Leimert Park Art Walk
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Noon
BLESSING
Blessing and Libations: Imodoye Shabazz
Drum Call: Najite Agindotan
1:00 PM
PROCESSION
We continue in the tradition of stopping four times to give offering of acknowledgment and celebration, a call to action, and a prayer for the future of our community.
SECTION ONE
Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks
SECTION TWO
Bese Saka: Our Wealth is Our Togetherness + Sika Dwimfo
S.H.I.N.E. MUWASI
Community Coalition
Milan Dwimfo
SECTION THREE
Lady Walquer Vereen
Janiece Blunt and Students
Pat Taylor and dance community
SECTION FOUR
Snake Doctor
Clarence and C3 Jazz
SECTION FIVE
Bernice and Alfred Ligon
Spiritual community
June Jubilee at Octavia Lab participants
SECTION SIX
John Outterbridge
Tami Outterbridge and Outterbridge friends, family and community
SECTION SEVEN
Harold Hambrick
LA LA
2:30 - 6:00 PM
PERFORMANCES
Welcome
Opening Drum/Dance: S.H.I.N.E. MUWASI
MC: Michael D.McCarty
Karen Mack, LA Commons
Tribute for Sika Dwimfo
S.H.I.N.E. MUWASI
Tribute for Lady Walquer Vereen
Pat Taylor, Kwami Adams, Lula Washington
Jan Blunt elementary students and Lula Washington
Music by Ballet Dembaya
Tribute for Bernice and Alfred Ligon
Raymond Shields
Jimetta Rose and Voices of Creation
S. Pearl Sharp
Presentation of the Serapis
Tribute for John Outterbridge
Kamau Kamau Daáood
Dwight Trible
Ben Caldwell
Charles Dickson
Tami Outterbridge
Dwight Trible Band
Tribute for Snake Doctor
Clarence and C3 Jazz
Sri Snake Doctor Junior
Jae Jae and Joey
Tribute for Harold Hambrick
Torrence Brannon Reese and Everything with Soul
Darryl Hambrick
Muriel Shabazz
Torrence Brannon Reese
__________________________________________________
BESE SAKA SATURDAYS
FACILITATORS AND PARTNERS
West African Dance
Daunté "KINGTAE" Fyall and DAANSEKOU
Ancestor Mask Making
Ronieka Pinkney
Maria Elena Cruz
Aiysha Sinclair
Ka’lynn Youngblood
African Drumming with Mama Nene
Rene Fisher-Mims, Founder of S.H.I.N.E. Muwasi
FESTIVAL OF MASKS YOUTH WORKSHOPS
Leimert Park Cultural Organizer
Nia McClinton
Youth Mentor
Nalini Sadler
Sankofa Youth Leaders
Maximo Solace
Dominique Whyte
Timberlynn Tucker
Ajoure Naulls
Ashley Lomeli Reyes
Jessica Lomeli Reyes
Adam Zosar
Nohemí Lomeli Reyes
Angel Stormborn
Queen Tee
Aniya Cornejo
Ayomide Aborisade
Kalia Zionara Martinez
Mateo Barrientos
Rebekah Decoursey
Giorvanny Durandisse
Gael Hernandez
Hassani Muhammad
Tayshaun Humes
A'Riya Gooden
Jada Robinson
2024 MASK FESTIVAL LEADERSHIP CIRCLE
Ronieka Pinkney
Ben Caldwell
Rene Fisher-Mims
Adé Neff
Randal Henry
Karen Mack
2024 MASK FESTIVAL PROJECT TEAM
Tamica Washington-Miller, Artistic Convener
Joyce Maddox, Mask Festival Event/Production Manager
David Jackson, Instrument Audio Services LLC, Sound and Audio
Nia McClinton, Leimert Park Cultural Organizer
Aiysha Sinclair, Multimedia Designer
Raylene Lopez, Multimedia Designer
John Freeland, Jr., Event Stage Manager
LA COMMONS STAFF
Anahit Poturyan, Development Coordinator
Beth Peterson, Community Arts Program Director
Briana Rivera, Communications Coordinator
Dena Cheng, Development and Communications Manager
Elizabeth Cho, Program Manager - Partnerships
Guillermo Alvarez, Cultural Organizer
Indeya Eubank, Program Coordinator - Cultural Treasures of South LA
James Keum, Operations Coordinator
Joré Aaron, Executive Assistant & Special Projects Coordinator
Kaitwan Jackson, Program Manager - Cultural Treasures of South LA
Karen Mack, Executive Director
Leslie Tamaribuchi, Operations and Strategy Director
Rosio Romero, Cultural Organizer
Nia McClinton, Cultural Organizer
Sara Castro, Cultural Organizer
Susie Garcia, Operations Manager
Valery Mendoza-Martinez, Community Arts Program Manager
PARTNERS
KAOS Network
Leimert Park ArtWalk
The World Stage
Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
ECWA Empowerment Congress West Area
Leimert Park Jazz Festival
Fernando Pullum Community Arts
Lula Washington Dance Theater
Fowler Museum
Community Coalition
Wellnest LA
Urban Soul Farmer
SoLA Impact
Black Women for Wellness
Jenesse
YWCA Greater Los Angeles
Nappily Naturals
William Grant Still Art Center
Aziz Gallerie
Ackee Bamboo
ORA
FUNDERS
City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs
LA Care
Holly J. Mitchell, Supervisorial District 2, County of Los Angeles
Heather Hutt, Council District 10, City of Los Angeles
ECWA Empowerment Congress West Area
Public Allies
LA County Department of Arts and Culture
LA County Department of Youth Development
Wellnest LA
Dwight Stuart Youth Fund
California Arts Council
The California Endowment
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