Leimert Park Village · Los Angeles · since 2019

The Villageremembers.So do we.

Culture · Commerce · Community

Memory Line · the community archive

Every face on one long line.

Portraits recorded in the Village, each one carrying a voice. Pull one off the line and listen.

Open the archive →

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The Village

Forty four stops. One block of Black LA.

The One Village map, drawn for We Love Leimert. Every number on the art is live. Tap one for the shop, its site and directions.

Open the map →Village resources

Illustrated One Village map of Leimert Park

Explore the map →

Next up in the VillageFull calendar →

Since 2019 · with KAOS NetworkZ and LA Commons

The epicenter of Black
Culture.Commerce.Community.Liberation.

We Love Leimert produces shared cultural experiences and community-rooted media that activate Leimert Park Village as a campus, strengthen its local creative economy, and preserve its stories for future generations.

Egun Egun dancing in front of the Leimert Plaza fountain — **Egun Egun at Leimert Plaza***Dancing in front of the fountain*Photograph by Ka’Lynn Youngblood

The collection · programs and stories

Works from the Village.

Enter the Sankofa Art Show →

#WeLoveLeimert because...

Pin a love note to the Village. Drag them around.

House rules. No personal information, no foul language, and nothing aimed at a person or a group. Every note goes to We Love Leimert for review before it goes up.

Saturday · 06.19.2027 · Leimert Park Village

Juneteenth on Degnan.

A full day of music, art and celebration in the heart of Leimert Park Village. Lineup, tickets and the full schedule are coming soon.

Be first to know →Partner with us

Days

Hours

Min

Sec

Vision Theatre · 729 seatsThe Plant Chica · 50 seatsFree screensFive stages on one block

Stay in the Village

Come build with us.

Volunteer at the Welcome Center and the marketplace, or just get the newsletter. Programs, events and openings, straight from us.

Our Roots

Our roots.

The background of We Love Leimert. Who we are, what we do, and where we come from.

Drummers gathered around the Leimert Plaza fountain at dusk

Mission

About Us

We Love Leimert is a Black-led special events and media production company rooted in Leimert Park Village.

We activate the Village as a cultural campus, connecting its businesses, cultural institutions, artists, and public spaces through coordinated days of programming.

Through film, photography, oral history, digital storytelling, and archival projects, we document the people, places, objects, and traditions that make Leimert Park an essential center of Black culture in Los Angeles.

We believe the Village is not simply a backdrop for culture. It is the headliner.

Our History

We Love Leimert began in 2019, when the legendary Leimert Park cultural institution KAOS NetworkZ, with support from LA Commons, brought together a new generation of Black artists, cultural workers, producers, and organizers.

From the beginning, our work has been guided by a Sankofa approach: reaching back to the knowledge of our elders and ancestors while building toward the future.

Today, We Love Leimert carries that founding vision forward as a special events and media production company. We coordinate the Village’s businesses, venues, institutions, and public spaces into a connected cultural campus. At the same time, we are building a digital community archive that preserves Leimert Park’s living history in collaboration with the people who have created it.

Step into the Sankofa Art Show →

Who We Are

A multi-generational community. We Love Leimert activates artists and Angelenos to partner with our elders and ancestors to preserve and uplift Leimert Park as the epicenter of Black Culture, Commerce, Community, and Liberation in Los Angeles.

Build Black Utopia. We Love Leimert are organizers of unapologetically Black artists, cultural bearers, producers, curators, strategists and creatives passionately grounded in cultural innovation to honor the historically Black heritage of Leimert Park Village and the greater Los Angeles Black community.

Sankofa Strategy

We Love Leimert’s Sankofa Strategy engages the practices of community organizing and artistic activism to create sustainable cultural economic opportunities for the next generation to design and produce cultural programming and experiences in Leimert Park Village.

Sankofa · go back and fetch it

Sankofa Art Show.

Step back through the Village. Work by We Love Leimert, Kaya Dantzler and the artists who keep Leimert Park’s memory alive. The further you scroll, the further back you go.

Main feature · Documentary

We Love Leimert.

A film produced and directed by Kaya Dantzler. Thirteen minutes.

Now playing

On the big screen.

The timeline

From today back to 2019.

Tap any screen to tune in.

Through their lens

The artists behind the camera.

We Love Leimert Digital Community Archive

Our stories.

A living, participatory record of the voices, memories and creative practices of Leimert Park Village. At its heart is the Memory Line. Call from anywhere, or visit the phone installation inside Ora Café, to add your voice to the archive.

Call (818) 806-8884 →Visit the phone at Ora ↗

Archive collage of Leimert Park landmarks, art, music, dance and community objects

Voices of the Village

Pick up the line. Listen deeply.

Hear neighbors, artists, entrepreneurs and elders reflect on what Leimert Park means to them. Each voice holds a piece of the Village. Together, they form a collective memory.

The Our Vision Our Voices collection of the Memory Line was a collaboration between Pray for the Hood, WACO, and We Love Leimert.

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Machine transcript Auto transcribed and corrected for names and places. We Love Leimert reads every one back against the tape before it is final.

Earth Day Festival in Leimert Park, April 26

Earth Day Collection

Our Power, Our Planet

Voices celebrating Earth Day in Leimert Park Village, recorded at the festival with The Plant Chica, Crunchy Woman and HikeClerb. Audio only. Community archivist, Kaya Dantzler.

Seven voices recorded on the Memory Line, April 26.

Obehe
Tiffany Duvernay Smith
Shena Flowers
Vitalola
Simone Watson
Trina
Tracy Taylor

Digital Exhibitions

Digital exhibitions.

Keepers of the Village, and the work they carry forward.

The line before ours

A phone can hold a neighborhood.

Memory Line is inspired by and continues the vision of Ben Caldwell’s Leimert Phone Company, which transformed the public telephone into a portal for cultural storytelling.

Caldwell, filmmaker, educator, elder, mentor, founder of KAOS Network and cofounder of We Love Leimert, showed us that media and memory can be tools for liberation. The Leimert Phone Company brought residents, artists, storytellers and technologists together to ask what a discarded payphone could become.

A phone can do more than connect two people. In community hands, it can connect generations.

Leimert Phone Company history ↗

Leimert Phone Company sculptural telephone totem — Leimert Phone Company telephone totem

Queen Aminah in a white head wrap and long beaded necklace — Queen Aminah

Queen Aminah · Degnan Boulevard

Art and objects that carry us home.

Queen Aminah keeps West African art, clothing and objects alive on Degnan Boulevard. Her collection was at the center of Holding History, where the Village gathered at People Street Plaza to reflect on her work beside Ben Caldwell’s archival films.

Her shop, Queen Aminah’s, and Sisters Marketplace by Queen Aminah are part of what makes the Village feel like home.

Video coming soon

Visit Queen Aminah’s ↗Find her on the map

Queen Aminah Collection

Coming soon

Portraits, objects and voices from Queen Aminah and Sisters Marketplace, recorded for the Memory Line.

A living archive and a practice of rememory

Rememory is our method.

Memory does not live only inside us. It lives in place, in what was built, what was felt and what continues to echo through time.

The archive is not static. It grows and shifts with the community, activated through sound, storytelling, exhibitions, archival days, story circles and participatory mapping. It is both record and ritual, a tool for preservation and a practice of imagination.

Not a monument.
Memory in motion.

What lives in the archive

More than a collection.

The archive brings many forms of community memory into conversation, and keeps them accessible to the people whose lives give them meaning.

Memory Line

Voice messages contributed through the hotline and the phone installation inside Ora Café.

Oral histories

Recorded conversations with elders, artists, entrepreneurs, organizers and cultural stewards.

Photos and video

Portraits and moving images contributed by community members and created through We Love Leimert programs.

Cultural artifacts

Digitized objects and interactive 3D models created through photogrammetry.

Gatherings

Digital exhibitions, archival days and story circles for collective sharing and memory keeping.

Community portal

The One Village map and a growing digital pathway through the people, businesses and institutions of Leimert Park.

Toward a collective memory

Add your voice to the archive.

There is no perfect way to remember. Your contribution can begin with a person, a place, a photograph or a few words about what the Village means to you.

What are your impressions of Leimert Park Village?
Who made you feel at home here?
Why is it important to document and protect neighborhood memory?
What should the next generation know, and what must never be forgotten?

Share your Leimert Park love story

Write a love note to Leimert Park in response to the prompt, “#WeLoveLeimert because…” Find or take a picture of yourself, a homie, a family member, a historical event, or any moment in the Village that shows why you love Leimert. Share your note and photo on Instagram, Facebook or X with the hashtag #weloveleimert.

Call from anywhere

Dial the Memory Line and leave a voice message about why you love Leimert Park.

(818) 806-8884

Visit the phone

Pick up the Memory Line phone inside Ora Café and contribute in person.

Directions ↗

Share material

Contribute photographs, video, objects, oral histories or other materials connected to the Village.

Email us

Gather with us

Join an archival day, story circle, exhibition or community memory keeping event.

Upcoming events

Juneteenth on Degnan

This one is behind a door.

The Juneteenth page is private for now. Enter the code we sent you.

No code? Write to info@weloveleimert.la.

Visit · the Village calendar

Something is always happening here.

Open mics, drum circles, film nights, workshops and markets, straight from the We Love Leimert community calendar. Pick a day, register, and add it to your own calendar.

Submit an event Produce a special event The Directory

Tap a day to filter. Tap it again to clear.

Drummers and neighbors gathered at People Street Plaza

Submit an event.

Already running something in the Village? Send it over and we will put it on the community calendar, the banner at the top of this site and the Visit list.

A large crowd gathered in Leimert Park for a community clean up

Produce a special event.

A special event uses Park Plaza where the fountain is, People Street Plaza, or needs a street closure. Those go through the Leimert Park Village Special Event Application.

Apply to produce a special event ↗

What counts

Three triggers

Park PlazaThe plaza around the fountain.
People Street PlazaThe pedestrian plaza on 43rd Pl in front of The Vision Theater.
A street closureAny footprint that closes down Degnan, 43rd Pl, 43rd St, or Sika Dwimfo Corridor.

What you will need

Have this ready

The basicsEvent day, start and end times, and the areas you want.
The paperworkCity of LA special event permit status, general liability insurance, sanitation, security and an ADA plan.
The programmeAmplified sound, stages, vendor types and a plot plan if you have one.

Start here

The application

One form, start to finishIt takes about twenty minutes with the details in front of you.
Questions first?Write us before you start.info@weloveleimert.la
Open the formLeimert Park Village Special Event Application.Apply now ↗

An artist holding a carved wooden piece at the plaza

Join the directory.

One list of everybody who sells, serves and supports events in the Village. Producers pull from it, and we send work your way.

The Village · map and resources

One Village, One Destination.

Forty four stops on one block of Black LA. Search the Village, tap a number, and go.

Pins from Google Maps

Map creditThe One Village map was put together by Community Labs.We Love Leimert made it clickable, and keeps every stop current.

Partner materials

This one is behind a door.

Partnership categories, levels and terms. Enter the code we sent you.

No code? Write to info@weloveleimert.la.

Corner Store

Corner Store.

One stop for things made in and for Leimert Park Village, and We Love Leimert merch. Every piece is custom dyed and carries a message about unity and looking out for one another.

Order request. No payment is taken on this page. We reply with a payment link and pickup or shipping details, and we confirm your size and color before anything is charged.

Village Talk

Village Talk.

Stories, spotlights and conversations from the people who keep Leimert Park moving.

AJ Girard in a patchwork shirt in a studio

Artist Spotlight · Feb 24, 2021AJ Girard, Curator and Art HistorianBuilding bridges between Black communities and the gallery and museum spaces that kept them out.Read the story →

← All stories Artist Spotlight · Feb 24, 2021 · By Miriha Austin

AJ Girard, Curator and Art Historian.

The Los Angeles art scene is exclusive enough, but to successfully and authentically take on the space as a Black man is not to go unnoticed. Howard University graduate Antoine ‘AJ’ Girard, art professional and cultural strategist, has made his mark by joining artists such as Lauren Halsey in connecting the Black community to gallery and institutional art spaces. Girard has an ease about him that allows him to not only be welcomed into these gate-kept zones, but to take the liberty of bringing folks in with him. That isn’t to say it doesn’t come at a price, or without sacrifice.

After lending his talents to The Broad and CAAM, and most recently and notably, the Underground Museum, AJ became a fixture in the Black art scene in LA and was quickly labeled for his ability to build bridges between spaces and communities. From streetwear and sneakers to students in underfunded school districts, Girard is part of a larger effort to impact museum culture and the way Black people experience and interact with it.

AJ Girard talking with an artist at a paint cart

His next adventure is his curatorial debut; A show titled Shattered Glass, that will be on view next month at Jeffrey Deitch Projects. This exhibition, in collaboration with Melahn Frierson, features forty artists of color whose subjects demand the very white space in which they are being presented. The works gathered for this exhibit shift the narrative that we’re used to, entirely. Being accustomed to the erasure or placement of Black and Brown bodies low on the hierarchical rung of the art ladder is exactly what this show opposes. The curators intended to bring together a collection of works that shatter the glass of the long existing power structures in the art world.

We were lucky enough to snag a bit of time with AJ to discuss the upcoming show and the responsibilities he feels when bringing Black bodies into white spaces.

The conversation with AJ Girard. Three minutes.

A painting of a man and a boy with a trumpet

Let’s Link!

Let’s link.

Questions, ideas, press, partnerships. Send a note and the team will get back to you.