Leimert Park Art Walk: A beacon for Black creativity

If you’re driving down Crenshaw on the last Sunday of the month, you may be lured by the sound of reggae and dancehall music coming from Leimert Park. You park your car on Vernon Ave and walk half a mile up to Degnan Boulevard, where you see a line of Afro-centric boutiques, food stands and art exhibitions.

You’re at the Leimert Park Artwalk, a space where the Black community gathers to share and commemorate their culture here in Los Angeles. This monthly celebration was created by renowned artist, director and filmmaker, Ben Caldwell in the summer of 2010. Since then, the artwalk has brought the Black community together in a way that allows them to showcase their culture, passion and talents to the public.

The cultural enclave fosters a sense of unity amongst its Black businesses owners and vendors. According to Jeanette Miller, a Leimert Park vendor who sells Kenyan body oils and soaps, Leimert Park has been a staple for Black creativity since she was a young girl growing up in Los Angeles.

“It’s a family unit,” Miller said. “We enjoy being here and we enjoy selling our goods. It’s just the meaning of every Sunday.”

The art walk has garnered a lot of foot traffic over the years and each month vendors work to keep their ideas fresh and their inspiration flowing. Artist and jewelry designer Ishmael Israel, handmakes his own jewelry, but the bending of copper metal into bracelets is not the hardest part of jewelry designing for Israel.

“It’s making sure the ideas stay fresh,” he said. “Because if it’s something I could visualize in my mind, I could make it pretty quick.”

Israel started off as a painter before switching to jewelry making when he was just 18 years old. He now owns his own jewelry company, Douglas Designs Unlimited, and is proud to showcase his artwork in Los Angeles.

“It feels like I’m competing on the world stage. This is definitely one of the gateways into recognition on a larger platform.”

Not only is the art walk a safe space for artists to receive exposure for their work, but it’s a way for historically Black neighborhoods like Leimert Park to be preserved. Even with 79.6 percent of the population being African American, looming threats of gentrification remain a major concern in the area.

However, artists like Los Angeles native, Muhammed Bubaruk, continue to display their work to keep the culture of the neighborhood alive.

“I love Black people. I love Black music, and I love our history. I’ve been over in this part of the town since 1973. And there was a time when Black people weren’t allowed to be on this side of town.”

Born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Compton, Bubaruk remembers a time period in which America was still reeling from its Jim Crow Era. He recalls the drastic change in the area as more African Americans migrated to Leimert Park in the 70s and 80s. During this transition, Bubaruk’s love for jazz culture and portrait art grew.

“A lot of these people were an inspiration to me when I was coming up, and I am still inspired by them today,” Bubaruk says. “I paint people because I am into people.”

As a portrait artist, Bubaruk uses different types of paint to showcase the visual elements of each individual. He uses a mix of oil and acrylic paint, using the acrylic to exhibit a rougher texture to a portrait and the oil to showcase a smoother finish.

He stressed the difficulties in working with these paints, as the acrylic dries much faster than the oil, making his time with the acrylic paint limited.

“You can go from light to dark, to dark to light much more easily with the oil than you could with the acrylic because you got more time to work with it.”

Historically Black figures such as Barbara Morrison, Nipsey Hussle, Muhammed Ali and many more remain an inspiration to Bubaruk, as he proudly displays his talent every Sunday on Degnan Boulevard.

What makes the Leimert Park Art Walk such a friendly environment is the openness and vulnerability each vendor showcases behind their stand. Their work that is influenced by their culture is not gatekept, but displayed in a manner that piques curiosity and fascination.

The sense of community the art walk exhibits is reflective of its residents, who welcome the public with open arms. So if you are driving down Crenshaw on the last Sunday of the month, head to the Leimert Park Art Walk, where you can witness the beauty of Black creativity.